Here’s DC movies ranked from worst to best, covering the shaky DCEU years, James Gunn’s rebooted DCU, and the handful of pre-2013 films every fan still means when they say “DC movie” — Nolan’s Batman trilogy, Joker, and The Batman. The Dark Knight tops it. Suicide Squad is the floor. Everything else argues itself out in between.
Last updated: October 8, 2026
Quick scope note so nobody’s confused: this covers the DCEU/DCU era, Man of Steel (2013) through Supergirl (2026), plus the small group of modern DC films that live outside those continuities but that everyone actually means when they say “DC movies” — the Dark Knight trilogy, Joker, and The Batman. That’s 22 movies total. No animated features, no Catwoman, no Jonah Hex, no direct-to-video stuff. Just the theatrical (and one streaming-only) era people are actually arguing about.
The Ones Even Fans Skip
22. Suicide Squad (2016)
This is the floor. David Ayer’s cut got reshuffled by a trailer-house reshoot after the first marketing trailer tested well and the finished film didn’t, and you can feel the seams. It sits at 26% on Rotten Tomatoes despite a $749 million worldwide haul. Jared Leto’s Joker got nearly cut out entirely, which, watching it, feels like the right call taken too far.
21. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Say what you want about Zack Snyder’s fight-the-gods opera — and critics did, landing it at 29% — it swung for something bigger than a hero punching a villain. The “why does Batman hate Superman” setup is dumb, but the operatic, grief-soaked tone it’s reaching for isn’t nothing. It just forgot to let anyone crack a joke for 151 minutes, and $874 million worldwide couldn’t buy it goodwill.
20. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)
The DCEU’s actual last gasp before Gunn’s reboot, and it closed the book on a whimper — 33% on Rotten Tomatoes, $440 million worldwide against a budget that needed way more than that to feel like a win. Louder and busier than the 2018 original without being any more fun.
19. Black Adam (2022)
Dwayne Johnson spent close to a decade publicly campaigning to play this character, and the finished movie (39% critics, $394 million worldwide) feels like it’s still waiting for a script to match the hype. Hawkman’s wings do more acting than most of the dialogue.
18. Justice League (2017)
The theatrical cut feels like two different movies stapled together, because it is one: Zack Snyder left mid-production after a family tragedy, and Joss Whedon’s reshoots chopped it under two hours and swapped in a different sense of humor entirely. 40% on Rotten Tomatoes, $661 million worldwide, and a cleanup job (the Snyder Cut) that took four more years to arrive.
Mixed Bags Worth a Debate
17. Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)
The 2019 original’s family-comedy warmth mostly evaporates here. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 49%, and its $134 million worldwide gross was one of the weakest closes of the whole DCEU run. Not bad, just forgettable in a way the first one never was.
16. Supergirl (2026)
James Gunn’s DCU follow-up to Superman landed rough with critics (52% on Rotten Tomatoes) and rougher at the box office — $126.4 million worldwide against a budget north of $170 million. Fans warmed to it faster than reviewers did — the audience score has consistently tracked well above the Tomatometer. The full breakdown is in our Supergirl watch guide.
15. Man of Steel (2013)
Man of Steel gets flak for being joyless, and the church-window shot is a little much, but it’s the only DCEU movie that actually treats Superman’s strength as something people would realistically panic about. That collateral-damage anxiety is the whole reason Batman v Superman exists. 57% on Rotten Tomatoes, $668 million worldwide. Our Man of Steel watch guide goes deeper on where it fits in the timeline.
14. Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
Good ideas — the Themyscira opening, a monkey’s-paw wish that warps the whole plot — buried under a runtime that won’t quit. It also released day-and-date on HBO Max mid-pandemic, which gutted its theatrical math: 57% critics, just $170 million worldwide.
13. The Flash (2023)
It’s sitting at 63% on Rotten Tomatoes. The multiverse cameos are a blast for about ten minutes, then the film doesn’t know when to stop pulling that thread. Ezra Miller’s off-screen legal troubles overshadowed the release more than the $271 million worldwide number suggests.
Solid Watches
12. Aquaman (2018)
Pure, dumb, colorful fun, and nobody involved seems embarrassed about it. 66% on Rotten Tomatoes undersells how big this played worldwide: $1.149 billion, more than any other DCEU movie except Joker.
11. Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)
Proof a movie can be both genuinely better and still too long. The four-hour HBO Max cut fixes almost everything wrong with the tone of the 2017 theatrical version, gives every League member an actual arc, and sits at 71% on Rotten Tomatoes — but it never meets a scene it doesn’t want to stretch. No theatrical release means no box office number to put next to it.
10. Blue Beetle (2023)
An underseen gem that deserved a bigger audience than it got: 78% on Rotten Tomatoes, but only $131 million worldwide, one of the weakest theatrical runs of the DCEU era. Family-first, low-stakes, and funnier than its marketing let on.
9. Birds of Prey (2020)
Stylish, loud, and way more fun than its $206 million worldwide number suggests — Warner Bros. partly blamed the underperformance on the original title not mentioning Harley Quinn, and later rereleased art that put her name front and center. 79% on Rotten Tomatoes.
8. Joker (2019)
Barely connects to the rest of the DC universe, and it’s better for it. This is a character study wearing a comic book coat of paint, and it won Joaquin Phoenix a Best Actor Oscar for the trouble. 68% on Rotten Tomatoes undersells it; $1.079 billion worldwide says audiences disagreed with the critics who weren’t fans.
Genuinely Great
7. Shazam! (2019)
The DCEU’s warmest, funniest movie, full stop. A kid’s wish-fulfillment story that remembers superheroes are supposed to be a little bit ridiculous and a lot fun. 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, $364 million worldwide, and not a single scene that takes itself too seriously.
6. The Suicide Squad (2021)
James Gunn basically remade the 2016 film and did it right the second time — same D-list villain roster, actual jokes that land, a giant kaiju-starfish finale that earns its own chaos. 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, though a day-and-date HBO Max release during the pandemic kept the box office modest at $169 million worldwide. Full writeup in our The Suicide Squad watch guide.
5. Superman (2025)
The one that reset the brand. David Corenswet’s Superman is the first take on the character in over a decade that’s allowed to just smile and mean it. It opened to $125 million domestically — the biggest opening weekend ever for a standalone Superman movie, beating Man of Steel’s $116 million from 2013, per Variety, July 2025 — and finished with $619 million worldwide and an 83% Rotten Tomatoes score. Details in our Superman (2025) watch guide.
4. The Batman (2022)
Not even technically part of the DCEU or the new DCU — Matt Reeves’ Gotham runs on its own continuity entirely, closer to a detective noir than a superhero movie. Robert Pattinson’s Batman spends more time following evidence than throwing punches, and it works: 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, $773 million worldwide. Our full The Batman watch guide covers where a sequel stands.
The Best DC Has Given Us
3. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
The weakest leg of Nolan’s trilogy and still better than almost everything DC made after it. Bane’s voice is a meme at this point, but the Gotham-under-siege back half still hits like a gut punch. 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, $1.085 billion worldwide.
2. Wonder Woman (2017)
The DCEU’s best argument that it could work: a clear hero, a clear villain, and a No Man’s Land charge that’s still one of the best action beats the whole universe ever produced. 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, $823 million worldwide.
1. The Dark Knight (2008)
Still the one. Heath Ledger’s Joker is the reason this movie gets brought up in conversations that have nothing to do with comic books, and the Gotham-as-a-moral-trap structure holds up better than almost any superhero movie made since. 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, over $1 billion worldwide per Box Office Mojo. Nothing else on this list has touched it in 18 years, and nothing currently in development looks like it will.
The Full Ranking, Side by Side
All 22 movies, worst to best, with the Rotten Tomatoes critics score and worldwide box office for each. Scores can shift a point or two as reviews keep rolling in — this is where things stood as of October 2026.
| Rank | Movie | Year | Rotten Tomatoes | Box Office (worldwide) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Dark Knight | 2008 | 94% | $1.004B |
| 2 | Wonder Woman | 2017 | 93% | $823M |
| 3 | The Dark Knight Rises | 2012 | 87% | $1.085B |
| 4 | The Batman | 2022 | 85% | $773M |
| 5 | Superman | 2025 | 83% | $619M |
| 6 | The Suicide Squad | 2021 | 90% | $169M |
| 7 | Shazam! | 2019 | 90% | $364M |
| 8 | Joker | 2019 | 68% | $1.079B |
| 9 | Birds of Prey | 2020 | 79% | $206M |
| 10 | Blue Beetle | 2023 | 78% | $131M |
| 11 | Zack Snyder’s Justice League | 2021 | 71% | N/A (HBO Max only) |
| 12 | Aquaman | 2018 | 66% | $1.149B |
| 13 | The Flash | 2023 | 63% | $271M |
| 14 | Wonder Woman 1984 | 2020 | 57% | $170M |
| 15 | Man of Steel | 2013 | 57% | $668M |
| 16 | Supergirl | 2026 | 52% | $126M |
| 17 | Shazam! Fury of the Gods | 2023 | 49% | $134M |
| 18 | Justice League | 2017 | 40% | $661M |
| 19 | Black Adam | 2022 | 39% | $394M |
| 20 | Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom | 2023 | 33% | $440M |
| 21 | Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice | 2016 | 29% | $874M |
| 22 | Suicide Squad | 2016 | 26% | $749M |
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the best DC movie ever made?
The Dark Knight (2008). It’s the highest-rated film on this list at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, and most critics and fans still put it at the top of any DC ranking, DCEU or otherwise.
Is Man of Steel part of the same universe as Superman (2025)?
No. James Gunn’s Superman (2025) opens a brand-new DCU continuity. Man of Steel belongs to the earlier, Zack Snyder-launched DCEU, which ran from 2013 through Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in 2023.
What’s the worst DC movie?
Suicide Squad (2016), at 26% on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s widely considered the chaotic low point of the DCEU, and James Gunn’s 2021 do-over, The Suicide Squad, was partly a response to how badly the first one landed.
Is The Batman connected to the DCEU or the new DCU?
No. Matt Reeves’ The Batman runs on its own self-contained continuity outside both the old DCEU and Gunn’s new DCU, which is part of why a sequel hasn’t been folded into the shared universe.
