An insipid superhero sequel that marked the beginning of the end for an iconic franchise splits in two on streaming

As inconsistent as the DCU has proven to be across its decade of existence, the comic book company’s most iconic heroes having their subsequent cinematic adventures nosedive in quality is hardly a new phenomenon, with Superman III falling off a critical and commercial cliff a whole 40 years ago.

Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie changed the face of cinema forever, and even now it endures as one of the most beloved contributions the genre has ever witnessed. Regardless of which version you prefer, the same can also be said of Christoper Reeve’s second outing under the cape and external underpants, before the wheels started shaking third time around.

Taking a more comedic tone than its predecessors and leaning far to heavily on Richard Pryor, Superman III was widely blasted by critics for ignoring the essence of what had made the first two chapters to unforgettable, while box office takings plummeted from the healthy $190 million of the sophomore blockbuster to just over $80 million, a quite frankly staggering drop.

On the plus side, the threequel looks like an indisputable classic when placed next to the abominable Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, but those rose-tinted glasses must be pretty thick after Reeve’s underwhelming penultimate outing became one of the most-watched features on iTunes this week, per FlixPatrol.

Ironically, history would repeat itself less than a decade and a half later when Joel Schumacher took over the Batman IP and ran it into the ground, leaving the four-film arcs of DC’s heaviest hitters separated by a vast gulf in quality.