The Suicide Squad - unnecessary white male director gets second chance

[Dr. Pasquale]

So I hear this movie is doing quite poorly box office wise

I hope it performs better in streaming, cuz I would really hate to see it being memory holed like Birds of Prey. Theaters are just fucking dying I guess, first Black Widow and now this, ain't no amount of big bugget capeshit gonna bring it back from the grave

 

[Mr. Zed da Robot Poon Fed]

So I hear this movie is doing quite poorly box office wise

I hope it performs better in streaming, cuz I would really hate to see it being memory holed like Birds of Prey. Theaters are just fucking dying I guess, first Black Widow and now this, ain't no amount of big bugget capeshit gonna bring it back from the grave

The only big movies I know that have done well so far/made profit is Mortal Kombat (because of its low budget) and Godzilla vs. Kong (because of its low marketing cost/recognizable movie figures).

 

[The Nothingness]

So I hear this movie is doing quite poorly box office wise

I hope it performs better in streaming, cuz I would really hate to see it being memory holed like Birds of Prey. Theaters are just fucking dying I guess, first Black Widow and now this, ain't no amount of big bugget capeshit gonna bring it back from the grave

WB screwed themselves with releasing new movies both in theaters and HBO Max. If the Gunn Squad doesn't get the China market, it may be considered a bomb like the new Space Jam movie.

It is now time for my thoughts on the movie and before I start, I will admit this take is probably shit and I freely admit I have shit takes when it comes to movies.

Spoiler: My Shit Take

I put this Suicide Squad and the 2016 installment on equal footing, in that I though they were okay. Despite the different tones (even with the studio inference with Ayer's movie) and the 2021 Squad being a semi-reboot, I still compare the two given they have similar plot elements. Here are a few things I wanted to give my two cents on.

• Waller was much more of threat in 2016 than in 2021, which is not saying much. Perhaps this has to do with the tone of both movies since in the Ayer Squad, she had control of Enchantress (and planned on weaponizing her upon recapture), personally murdered her government subordinates when it was revealed she was the one Task Force X was charged with protecting, and had Joker's chopper shot down during Harley's rescue attempt. Meanwhile she gets betrayed by her subordinates in the Gunn Squad and their punishment is to "babysit" a recovering Peacemaker.
• Speaking of Harley Quinn, she was a little more tolerable in the Gunn Squad than in the Ayer Squad although she was more of an antihero (drawing the line at children murder) since this newest Suicide Squad takes place after Birds of Prey and she's no longer associated with Joker. Though I find it ironic a big deal was made about not sexualizing Harley in BOP but for most the Gunn Squad, she was running around in a red dress rather than her knockoff Black Widow suit she wore at the start of the movie.
• I felt Deadshot did the estranged father storyline better than Bloodsport even if the latter had a surrogate daughter in Ratcatcher 2. I guess it is because Bloodsport only had one interaction with his daughter and no followup afterwards (other than her seeing Bloodsport on the news).
• Peacemaker, Polka-Dot Man, and Ratcatcher 2 were better supporting characters even with two of them having new origins.
• While Enchantress and Starro were both weak villains, I would pick the witch over the alien starfish. Task Force X's fight with her had a climatic feel to it especially with how it ended.

 

[Cpl. Long Dong Silver]

This fucking garbage is "the highest rated comic book movie ever".

It is a fucking joke. I mean that literally its just quip, quip, gore, quip, gore, quip.

 

[Jar-Jar Fanboy]

Fuck Harley Quinn and her "lol so random" dialogue. "I love rain! It's like being splooged on by angels!" Fucking cringe. And fuck James Gunn's urge to shove as many jokes into every single scene as he can. Sometimes, less is more. With those gripes out of the way, overall, I really enjoyed this movie. I loved the visuals, especially Peacemaker and Flagg's fight reflected in Peacemaker's helmet, and Starro's design. I loved Peter Capaldi as this fucked up scientist performing horrendous experiments, and his cheeky grin when Starro says, "he had his way with me." I liked the characters on this squad a lot more than the first one, and was actually sad when Polka-Dot Man bit it, and he's a dude I never thought I'd care about. The fake out squad at the start was great, and Weasel drowning killed me. Compared to other DC movies. except for maybe SnyderCut, this one's the best. Compared to Marvel movies, it beats the Hell out of the vast majority of them, too, in my opinion. I'm getting real tired of superhero movies, but The Suicide Squad actually held my attention, and kept me entertained. I hope DC keeps making movies like this. It seems like they've learned their lesson about interfering too much

 

[Cpl. Long Dong Silver]

Ok I did enjoy it. I love Cena and Idris so it got better as it went on. I also like Joel Kinnamen from what he did in Altered Carbon.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

Deadline Hollywood reports that The Suicide Squad lost 26% of its viewership from HBO MAX.

Some might cite the global pandemic, but it’s also reported to have a not-so-good earning from the box office this week.

 

[The Valeyard]

The stinger at the end has me curious as well.

Spoiler: Post-credits scene

It was announced that Peacemaker is getting a series on HBO Max before the movie came out.

 

[Quijibo69]

Another super hero type movie I knew was garbage after watching it 15 minutes. This was just as bad as Space Jam 2.

 

[Tor Lugosi]

Spoiler: Post-credits scene

It was announced that Peacemaker is getting a series on HBO Max before the movie came out.

Hopefully it doesn't get some retarded showrunner that doesn't like guns and violence, like Falcon & the Winter Soldier got.

EDIT: Looks like James Gunn is the showrunner and will be writing all the episodes and directing most of them.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Deadline Hollywood reports that The Suicide Squad lost 26% of its viewership from HBO MAX.

Some might cite the global pandemic, but it’s also reported to have a not-so-good earning from the box office this week.

I mean. It's kind of a non-story. OMG! A 200 million dollar movie underperformed during the pandemic and people don't want to go to movie theaters anymore. No shit.

 

[Product Placement]

The only big movies I know that have done well so far/made profit is Mortal Kombat (because of its low budget) and Godzilla vs. Kong (because of its low marketing cost/recognizable movie figures).

MK flopped, only grossed $84 million on a $55 budget, however, within America seems to have the highest opening day streaming numbers for any movie so far this year, that is on all streaming platforms not just HBO Max, also The Suicide Squad isn't too far behind that number.

In terms of hits this year not from China, F9 is the biggest one with a gross over $662M, Godzilla vs Kong is next with $467 million, as of now there were the last two big western releases in China, and in the case of GvK it did do badly in American with only a gross of $80 million.

Black Widow will break even with Disney+ rental money
A Quiet Place 2 is a hit, $61 million budget nearly $300million box office
Cruella has made $221million on a budget of $100million, and that is without Disney+ money
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It $40 million budget vs $200million box office
Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway $45 million vs $150 million box office

The box office did seem to have been recovering, however, the increases of the covid delta variant put a stop to that, as seen with the huge drop between Black Widows first and the second weekend, along with no movie after getting past $40 million openings, the lack of a Chinese market is also for sure hurting many movies such as Space Jam 2 and Black Widow which likely would become profitable with that market.

The real question is how much importance is WB putting on the box office right now compared to HBO Max. Even if Suicide Squad has legs it likely won't do much better than Cruella or the Conjuring, which normally would be pretty bad with its budget, however, let's say it gets a $200million box office, that would more than cover the marketing and some of the cost of making the movie, thus making it a cheaper investment to have on HBO Max, rather then it if was on just HBO Max and not the cinema.

After Wonder Woman 84 did well for HBO (which was lower than both MK, and TSS, also likely TSS will do better in cinemas), WB said they will be making a number of exclusive HBO Max DC movies, so HBO Max numbers have to got to have some importance just a question of how much.

 

[BrunoMattei]

MK flopped, only grossed $84 million on a $55 budget, however, within America seems to have the highest opening day streaming numbers for any movie so far this year, that is on all streaming platforms not just HBO Max, also The Suicide Squad isn't too far behind that number.

In terms of hits this year not from China, F9 is the biggest one with a gross over $662M, Godzilla vs Kong is next with $467 million, as of now there were the last two big western releases in China, and in the case of GvK it did do badly in American with only a gross of $80 million.

Black Widow will break even with Disney+ rental money
A Quiet Place 2 is a hit, $61 million budget nearly $300million box office
Cruella has made $221million on a budget of $100million, and that is without Disney+ money
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It $40 million budget vs $200million box office
Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway $45 million vs $150 million box office

The box office did seem to have been recovering, however, the increases of the covid delta variant put a stop to that, as seen with the huge drop between Black Widows first and the second weekend, along with no movie after getting past $40 million openings, the lack of a Chinese market is also for sure hurting many movies such as Space Jam 2 and Black Widow which likely would become profitable with that market.

The real question is how much importance is WB putting on the box office right now compared to HBO Max. Even if Suicide Squad has legs it likely won't do much better than Cruella or the Conjuring, which normally would be pretty bad with its budget, however, let's say it gets a $200million box office, that would more than cover the marketing and some of the cost of making the movie, thus making it a cheaper investment to have on HBO Max, rather then it if was on just HBO Max and not the cinema.

After Wonder Woman 84 did well for HBO (which was lower than both MK, and TSS, also likely TSS will do better in cinemas), WB said they will be making a number of exclusive HBO Max DC movies, so HBO Max numbers have to got to have some importance just a question of how much.

You're not taking into consideration one key thing: the studios make less from overseas theatrical screenings. How it works in America is that if the theater chains want the movie they have to give the studio a 90 or even 95% cut of the ticket sales for the opening weekend. That's why popcorn and candy are expensive as fuck. But, every subsequent weekend the studio has a take closer to 70% and 60% and so on every following weekend until the movie is out of theaters.

Overseas the studio takes far less. We don't have specific numbers but it's under 50%. Probably closer to 30-40% of ticket sales.

So, Fast 9 cost 200 million. Made 171 million in North America, and 491 million overseas. Plus a movie has to make 3 times its budget back to be profitable. Best case scenario with Fast 9 is that they made a little profit and didn't lose their ass. What the studios are doing now is dumping the tent pole movies on streaming and theatrical at the same time to get more people on their streaming service and at least break even on how much they borrowed to finance it.

Going forwards, we're most likely going to see a lot more lower to mid-budget movies for the conceivable future. The time of the 200 million dollar popcorn film is done.

 

[Product Placement]

You're not taking into consideration one key thing: the studios make less from overseas theatrical screenings. How it works in America is that if the theater chains want the movie they have to give the studio a 90 or even 95% cut of the ticket sales for the opening weekend. That's why popcorn and candy are expensive as fuck. But, every subsequent weekend the studio has a take closer to 70% and 60% and so on every following weekend until the movie is out of theaters.

Overseas the studio takes far less. We don't have specific numbers but it's under 50%. Probably closer to 30-40% of ticket sales.

So, Fast 9 cost 200 million. Made 171 million in North America, and 491 million overseas. Plus a movie has to make 3 times its budget back to be profitable. Best case scenario with Fast 9 is that they made a little profit and didn't lose their ass. What the studios are doing now is dumping the tent pole movies on streaming and theatrical at the same time to get more people on their streaming service and at least break even on how much they borrowed to finance it.

Going forwards, we're most likely going to see a lot more lower to mid-budget movies for the conceivable future. The time of the 200 million dollar popcorn film is done.

Did know about the smaller cut overseas, especially in China, but was still using 2 times the budget to be profitable as the rule of thumb for most movies, but for stuff like F9 and Black Widow, 3 times could be closer, especially with needing two marketing runs due to the delays.

$200 million movies aren't done yet, studios are still hoping for things to get back to normal which is why they keep making them and have plans to start shooting more in 2022, even if it's clear people aren't close to being ready to go back to cinemas in huge numbers.

Do wish it meant the return of the mid-budget movies, but doubt it will, at least not yet.

 

[KillThemCrackasBabies]

MK flopped, only grossed $84 million on a $55 budget, however, within America seems to have the highest opening day streaming numbers for any movie so far this year, that is on all streaming platforms not just HBO Max, also The Suicide Squad isn't too far behind that number.

This. I keep seeing people bringing up this doing worse than MK, but people forget that Mortal Kombat did better than expected in live ticket sales and is HBO Max's #1 movie so far. This is close behind it.

People are talking like "this is the end for them", but even the last Fast and the Furious, iirc the largest not-capeshit franchise out there, still fumbled. The 'Rona is still a huge problem and no shit people aren't piling into movie theaters. These "flops" are still opening at #1 even with their weak takes, do people just suspect the actual concept of movies is over? There's shit going on, and these movies are being flung onto live services and pulling in millions of viewers. If they're losing money, it's because of a shitty business tactic. The eyeballs are there.

 

[Product Placement]

This. I keep seeing people bringing up this doing worse than MK, but people forget that Mortal Kombat did better than expected in live ticket sales and is HBO Max's #1 movie so far. This is close behind it.

People are talking like "this is the end for them", but even the last Fast and the Furious, iirc the largest not-capeshit franchise out there, still fumbled. The 'Rona is still a huge problem and no shit people aren't piling into movie theaters. These "flops" are still opening at #1 even with their weak takes, do people just suspect the actual concept of movies is over? There's shit going on, and these movies are being flung onto live services and pulling in millions of viewers. If their losing money, it's because of a shitty business tactic. The eyeballs are there.

Well, the number of HBO Max viewers is limited and only based on TV viewership rather than desktop and phones from my understanding, but still a good sign and if it did well, expect an MK2 even if it is HBO Max only.

With HBO Max in the mix really hard to call any of these flops, because you don't know how much worth they are putting on viewership on HBO Max and how many new subs they bring in.

As of right now, got to say HBO Max move was a smart move, most of their movies are doing about as well as rival studios in the current climate in cinemas, and HBO Max without these movies lacked new content to get people to sub to them. In fact, outside these movies, the only other major streaming hit they had in terms of getting new subs was the Friends Reunion.

Disney has stuff like the Marvel and Star Wars shows that get people to sub on mass, so putting something like Jungle Cruise on there wouldn't have any effect on subs. Disney has got to take the risk of putting them out and eating the costs as much as they can. Disney and other studios could keep delaying movies, but that would end up delaying everything else in the pipeline, which would cause more issues.

 

[Oats12345]

I would love it if we just look at box office successes in Northern America and how it does here. Rather how it does in China.

 

[Product Placement]

I would love it if we just look at box office successes in Northern America and how it does here. Rather how it does in China.

Those days are getting rarer and rarer, once DVDs stopped selling as well as they used to, studios started looking at the international market to fill the gap, thus all the pandering to those markets. In fact, most blockbusters would flop if they only had the American box office.

Ever wonder why something like Hellboy 2 happened despite Hellboy 1 flopping. it was because the DVD sales were very strong. Something like the Wedding Crashers made nearly the same in DVD sales only in America then it made in cinemas worldwide.

Unless physical media makes sales come back, or they find a way to make blockbusters much cheaper, most big-budget and even mid-budget movies will keep pandering for that market, hell most of them likely still will do that anyway.

 

[JimiHendrix]

What they did with Amanda Waller towards the end hurts the character and really devalues her as a threat

kinda feel like the writers took the fact Waller is a nasty bitch to the degree of "Waller is now an insane bitch"

the order she gave at the end of the movie, she'd never fucking give. because it makes no fucking sense. what? does she think the thing is just gonna stay in brazil and leave everyone alone?

 

[The Valeyard]

the order she gave at the end of the movie, she'd never fucking give. because it makes no fucking sense. what? does she think the thing is just gonna stay in brazil and leave everyone alone?

If Task Force X withdrew from Corto Maltese as ordered or Waller hadn't been stopped from detonating their bombs, the Justice League would have taken care of Starro.