Hollywood keeps driving away half the country with tone and contempt, and the Supergirl rollout is a textbook case of why that strategy backfires.

Hollywood’s elites act like they don’t need ordinary Americans, and that attitude is now a marketing problem, not a statement of principle. Alienating big swaths of the audience doesn’t make a movie better; it squeezes ticket sales and shrinks cultural reach. When stars and studios toss cheap cultural shots instead of courting common sense, the box office pays the price.

Actress Milly Alcock stirred the pot by suggesting the backlash she faces comes from being a female superhero, and then publicly mocking critics as anonymous social media personas and “Dad of four, Christian.” That line didn’t sit well with a lot of people for a simple reason: it dismisses legitimate complaints about storytelling and tone by blaming the audience. Callouts that label whole groups as illegitimate critics are lousy marketing and worse public relations.

Superhero fatigue is real, and the market shows it. The Marvel machine used to lift everything in its path, but the genre is overloaded and audiences have gotten pickier. The DC Universe, which Supergirl is tied to, has been especially bumpy, and recent disappointments have left less room for error. You don’t get to lecture customers and expect them to keep buying the same ticket forever.

James Gunn’s approach to these franchises matters because his sensibility reshaped recent DC entries, and it’s not always a fit for classic heroes. He excels at ensemble, irreverent fare with loud soundtracks and comic relief, which built Guardians into a hit. But that style doesn’t naturally translate to solo, iconic figures rooted in traditional American idealism, and audiences noticed when Superman’s latest outing missed the mark.

The trailer for Supergirl, plus her cameo in Superman, makes the film look like another version of the angry outsider origin story: an alienated loner who “finds” a chosen family and rejects her roots. If the heroine is written as flawless by design and every flaw is blamed on others, the result is storytelling that feels hollow and didactic. Heroes with no real internal stakes or messy growth don’t feel heroic; they feel like messages in costume.

The “found family” motif keeps popping up in modern films, and here it reads less like an honest beat and more like a cultural agenda. There’s nothing wrong with diverse storytelling, but when the narrative repeatedly sidelines the traditional family and turns it into a political point, many viewers push back. Normalizing alternatives by making them a constant shorthand for virtue becomes tiring when it’s shoehorned into franchise storytelling.

Here’s more:

In a new interview with Variety, Alcock discussed the backlash surrounding her rise to the lead role in DC Studios’ upcoming “Supergirl” movie and said she has learned to tune out online outrage as scrutiny around blockbuster franchises intensifies.

“But I mean, whose opinion do you really care about?” Alcock said. “If you’re p—ing the right kind of people off, you’re doing OK.”

The actress suggested much of the hostility directed toward her comes from faceless social media users reacting emotionally online.

“And it’s from a lot of people whose profiles have no photo, who are burner accounts,” Alcock said. “Or someone’s name and then ‘Dad of four, Christian,’ which is hilarious to me.”

Calling critics “burner accounts” or mocking “Dad of four, Christian” as a punchline is insulting and dismissive, and that tone matters. When a star frames critics as illegitimate, it’s not just a personal defense—it’s a roadblock to honest conversation about craft. You can’t shout down customers and expect their wallets to stay open.

If you want people back in theaters, you need better writing and fewer cultural digs. Solid character arcs, believable stakes, and respect for a broad audience are the basics of good filmmaking. Treat fans like they matter and you stop shrinking your market; antagonize them and you make failure a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So mark my words: when a franchise leans on contempt and lectures rather than strong storytelling, the fallout is predictable. Supergirl can still surprise people, but the rollout suggests the filmmakers chose attitude over craft. If that’s the case, a flop won’t be accidental—it will be self-inflicted.