Supergirl may have an IMAX and premium-screen problem on top of everything else, and a respected box office tracker is already flagging it.
Exhibitor Relations (ERC) laid out the squeeze bluntly: opening sandwiched between Toy Story 5 and the upcoming Minions & Monsters was “always going to be banana peel territory,” and as ERC put it, “premium screens will be all about the animated flicks.”
In other words, the big-ticket IMAX and PLF auditoriums that command the highest per-screen grosses may tilt hard toward Pixar, leaving Supergirl at risk of losing premium real estate right as it opens.
Why Premium Screens Are The Whole Ballgame
IMAX and premium large-format screens punch far above their number.
They’re a small share of total auditoriums but drive an outsized chunk of opening-weekend grosses, because audiences pay a premium and the formats sell out first.
They’re also finite, as there are only so many IMAX houses in the country, so when two big titles want them, somebody loses.
That’s the bind Supergirl is in.
Toy Story 5 opened June 19 and is the exact kind of four-quadrant family tentpole exhibitors love to keep on premium screens into a second weekend, which is the same June 26 frame Supergirl opens in.
If Toy Story 5 holds the way Pixar titles tend to, theater owners have every incentive to keep those high-grossing screens pointed at the animated juggernaut.
Toy Story 5 Is Off To A Massive Start
Toy Story 5 didn’t just start strong — it set a record. P
Preview night came in at $17.5 million, a franchise best and the second-biggest animated preview ever behind only Incredibles 2. It followed with a $71 million Friday and is now tracking for a $160 million–$170 million three-day, the biggest opening of the year.
Pixar is exactly the kind of record-setting holdover exhibitors keep on premium screens into a second weekend, which is the same June 26 frame Supergirl opens in.
The stronger Toy Story 5 performs, the harder the premium-screen math gets for Supergirl.
A blockbuster hold gives exhibitors a concrete, dollars-based reason to keep IMAX and PLF auditoriums on Pixar rather than hand them to a newcomer, opening into tracking that’s now slipped toward a $40 million floor, that’s already opening in fewer theaters than Superman did.
This Just Happened — To Mortal Kombat II
IMAX and premium-screen reallocation isn’t a hypothetical. It just happened, and it’s the cleanest preview of what Supergirl is walking into.
Theaters don’t wait for a flop to finish flopping, they read the room and move the screens before the numbers even confirm it.
After Mortal Kombat II opened soft in May, exhibitors saw the second-weekend collapse coming and handed premium screens back to Michael, the Michael Jackson biopic, which returned to IMAX “by popular demand” that very frame.
The screens follow the demand, not the release date, and Mortal Kombat II cratered on schedule, limping to a $129 million worldwide finish on a reported $80 million budget. It was on VOD a month after release.
That’s the part worth noting: a holdover (Michael) reclaimed premium screens over a brand-new wide release (Mortal Kombat II) because exhibitors trusted the proven performer over the soft newcomer. They didn’t wait to be proven right. They priced it in.
It isn’t only domestic screens, either. Masters of the Universe just underscored how fast studios pull premium plays when the math doesn’t work: after its theatrical flop, Amazon skipped a French theatrical run entirely, sending it straight to streaming there.
When a title isn’t performing, the premium treatment is the first thing to go, and exhibitors apply that same cold logic to IMAX and PLF screens every weekend.
Now line Supergirl up against that.
It’s the newcomer this time, opening into soft tracking, in fewer theaters than Superman, against a Toy Story 5 holdover tracking for a franchise record.
That’s the exact profile that loses the IMAX and premium-screen bet — the soft new title, not the strong holdover.
Worth Watching, Not Yet Confirmed
To be clear about where this stands: ERC is forecasting where premium screens are likely to go, not reporting a booking decision that’s already happened.
No one has announced Supergirl losing IMAX or PLF runs, and a solid opening could keep it on those screens. This is a risk the numbers are pointing toward, not a done deal.
That said, the squeeze may already be showing.
Just a week before Supergirl opens, Warner Bros. quietly updated its official Clayface production listing to remove any mention of IMAX, a small but telling sign of how fluid premium-format plans can be when the schedule tightens.
And it fits the broader pattern. Between softening projections, bearish betting odds, lukewarm first reactions, a smaller theater count, and now a premium-screen squeeze, the signals keep stacking the same way, especially with Supergirl fighting to win its own opening weekend against Toy Story 5‘s second frame.
If Toy Story 5 dominates as expected, don’t be surprised to see premium screens shift further its way as the weekend plays out. Supergirl opens June 26. Read our Supergirl guide for more on the box office, story, and casting.
