Even though Suicide Squad set a few box office records in its opening days, it dropped significantly over the weekend. In fact, it dropped almost as far as Batman v Superman, the movie it was supposed to make up for.
Image: Warner Bros.
You might recall that Suicide Squad set the wonderfully specific “August domestic opening weekend box office” record, even though there was reportedly a fair bit of drop off between Friday and Saturday. For a moment, it seemed like the film might shrug that off when it also continued to break box office records on Monday.
And yet, in its second week, Suicide Squad hasn’t defeated the odds. According to Variety, the film’s $US43.8 million ($57 million) weekend haul represents a 67 per cent plunge from last weekend, which is just about as bad as Batman v Superman‘s 69 per cent drop. Bad reviews and bad word of mouth has apparently caught up to Suicide Squad, and no campaign by “fans” was able to defeat it.
This is going to be a problem for Warner Bros. for a number of reasons. First of all, the movie supposedly needs make between $US750 million and $US800 million ($977 million and $1 billion) to break even. And it’s probably going to have to do that without being released in China. It’s at $US384 million ($500 million) right now, and it doesn’t look like the momentum’s going to take it there. Batman v Superman‘s take was $US872.7 million ($1.1 billion), with about $US95 million ($123.7 million) coming from China. And so far Suicide Squad hasn’t done as well at that movie did.
The second problem is that Warner Bros. really wanted Suicide Squad to change the conversation around its DC movie universe. It was marketed as a funner, brighter movie to Batman v Superman, which was savaged by critics. Suicide Squad didn’t manage to deliver, leaving next year’s Wonder Woman and Justice League to shoulder all the expectations from here on out.
It’s going to be an uphill battle.