Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story has earned rave reviews and a coveted 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is a documentary that follows the impact of Christopher Reeve, both as Superman and also from his work as an activist for disability rights following a horse riding accident that left him paralyzed. Following the movie’s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, DC Studios co-president James Gunn convinced Warner Bros. to acquire the documentary, and the movie got a limited theatrical release on September 21, 2024, through Fathom Events with an encore presentation on September 25 for what would have been Reeve’s 74th birthday.
Super/Man received glowing reviews at the Sundance Film Festival, and now that the film has opened in theaters, more positive reviews are rolling in. The doc currently sits at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes with 38 reviews. This makes it the best-rated, theatrically released Superman-related movie on Rotten Tomatoes, beating out Christopher Reeve’s debut Superman feature film, 1978’s Superman: The Movie, which sits at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. Monica Castillo of RogerEbert.com said, “Easily my big festival cry, something that moves you so deeply that the combination of sleep deprivation, altitude, and the movie’s subject makes it almost impossible not to get emotional.”
Rachel Leishman of The Mary Sue called it “a reminder that one of my heroes was human like the rest of us, but he still did something extraordinary.” Siddhant Adlakha for IndieWire praised it by saying, “Delving into everything from his artistry and personal ethos, to his upbringing and his commitment issues, and eventually, to his disability activism — whose strengths and flaws are both framed as extensions of his personal outlook — Super/Man casts a wide net over the tale of a cultural icon.”
Possible Theater Extension, Oscar Chances, and Streaming Release
While Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story currently only has a limited release through Fathom Events, Warner Bros. is seemingly still open to a wider release rollout for the documentary, likely in the hopes of it being able to qualify for an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature film. The film is set to open in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2024, so audiences who missed the film may still have a chance to see it in theaters if Warner Bros. also decides to release the movie in the United States over the relatively empty pre-2024 election weekend.
Super/Man will stream on the Warner Bros. streaming service Max and was originally intended to premiere there before getting a Fathom Events release. No Max release date has been set yet, but with such positive word of mouth, the documentary will likely draw a lot of attention. There certainly is no shortage of Superman, with the upcoming final season of Superman & Lois set to debut in October 2024 and James Gunn’s Superman reboot coming in 2025. But Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story shows that there was only one Christopher Reeve and his impact is still being felt today through the millions of people he inspired as Superman and the millions more whose lives he improved through his advocacy.