Hollywood just handed the "go woke, go broke" crowd its biggest receipt of 2026. Warner Bros. and DC's Supergirl opened to a catastrophic $37.1 million domestically and just $62.6 million worldwide — against a $170 million production budget and roughly $120 million in marketing, according to Variety and other trade outlets. That is nearly $290 million spent to launch a movie that Variety projects will lose somewhere between $80 million and $120 million over its theatrical run.
Online, the number circulating was even uglier — commentators on X pegged the total loss north of $245 million. The trades put the damage lower, but the direction is the same: another tentpole built around a message-first rebrand cratered on opening weekend. And for a movement that keeps getting told "go woke, go broke" is just a slogan, this is what the slogan looks like on a balance sheet.
The receipts
- $170 million production budget (Warner Bros. / DC)
- ~$120 million in marketing spend
- $37.1 million domestic opening — roughly a third below pre-release estimates
- $62.6 million global opening weekend
- $80M-$120M projected theatrical loss, per Variety
It is the second big-budget belly-flop of the year for Warner Bros. after this spring's The Bride!, which flatlined at $23 million worldwide on a reported $90 million budget.
Here's the honest part
We're not going to insult you with a fairy tale. "Woke" is not the only reason a movie fails — marketing, timing, franchise fatigue and plain bad filmmaking all matter, and the same weekend Supergirl stumbled, Disney and Pixar's Toy Story 5 sat comfortably at No. 1. A studio can be ideologically captured and still print money on a nostalgia sequel. So no, one flop does not prove every progressive executive is about to file for bankruptcy.
What it proves is simpler and more useful: bolting a political rebrand onto a beloved property is a financial risk, and audiences increasingly punish it. The studios have that data too. That is exactly why you should know who you're funding every single month.
"Didn't corporate America drop DEI already?"
Fair question. From 2024 through 2026, plenty of household names quietly renamed, shrank or exited their DEI programs, and many walked away from the HRC Corporate Equality Index under legal and political pressure. But "rebranded the program" is not the same as "changed the balance sheet." The companies below still score where they score because the underlying behavior — ESG commitments, Pride spend, political giving — is still there. A press release is cheap. Our scores track what a company actually does, not what its comms team announced in a rough news cycle.
You can't un-spend $290 million — but you can check the score
You'll never get Warner Bros. to refund a ticket you didn't buy. But most people don't realize how much they hand these conglomerates on autopilot — the streaming bundle, the theme-park trip, the game console, the Prime membership. Here's where the biggest entertainment giants land on the BuyWokeFree Woke Score, our six-criteria rating covering ESG reporting, DEI programs, Pride sponsorships, the HRC Corporate Equality Index, political donations and CEO Action membership.
Amazon — 100/100
The company behind Prime Video, MGM and its own mega-budget streaming slate is the only studio parent on this list to score a perfect 100/100, maxing out every one of the six BWF dimensions: ESG reporting, DEI programs, Pride sponsorship, a perfect HRC CEI score, heavy left-leaning political contributions, and CEO Action signatory status. If you want a single number that captures corporate progressivism, this is it.
Walt Disney — 80/100
The original "go woke, go broke" lightning rod scores 80/100. Disney publishes ESG reports, ran the "Reimagine Tomorrow" DEI initiative, has scored a perfect 100 on the HRC Corporate Equality Index every year since 2007, sponsors Pride events worldwide and donates heavily to Democrats. Toy Story 5 topping the charts doesn't change the score — it just means the mouse can absorb a lot of self-inflicted damage.
Sony — 80/100
Sony — PlayStation, Sony Pictures, Columbia — also lands at 80/100. The conglomerate publishes sustainability reports, runs DEI programs across every division, sponsors Pride from Tokyo to San Diego, maintains perfect HRC CEI scores, and its entertainment PACs cut checks to political candidates. It's also drawing its own boycott heat this month over PlayStation's digital-only push.
Comcast — 57/100
Comcast, parent of NBCUniversal and Peacock, comes in at 57/100 — "woke" on our scale but not maxed out. Still, if you're finally cutting the cable cord, it's worth knowing where the bundle money flows.
What to actually do about it
Voting with your wallet only works if you know the scores before you swipe the card. A few concrete moves:
- Check before you subscribe. Look up any studio, streamer or console maker in our entertainment brand directory before the next auto-renewal hits.
- Fund the alternatives. Families tired of Disney+ can stream Minno, a faith-based kids' platform that scores a clean 1/100 — about as far from Supergirl's messaging as you can get.
- Redirect, don't just cancel. Every dollar you pull from a 100/100 giant and move to a low-score independent is a vote that actually shows up on a balance sheet — the only language Hollywood's accountants read.
Supergirl's producers spent nearly $290 million to relearn a lesson conservatives have been repeating for years. You don't have to spend a dime to apply it. Know the score, then decide where your money — and your family's Saturday morning — actually goes.