In last Friday’s links, I included a link from Pajiba, a link which was probably one of Pajiba’s most-discussed and most-reblogged posts of all time. You can read the post here. Pajiba published an open letter from an ex-employee of Warner Bros about how the suits of WB are ruining everything. The main point was that the worker bees of Warner Bros are being let go while WB throws good money after bad on terrible projects. The centerpiece of the argument was that WB is ruining the DC Comic universe by allowing Zack Snyder to put his lens-flare stink and endless Christ allegories all over everything.
One of the reasons why the letter went viral in such spectcular fashion is because the WB employee was basically saying what many industry analysts, box-office watchers and film-lovers have been saying for months/years. Warner Bros’ problem is not just that Zack Snyder sucks, it’s that the sh-tty corporate choices being made by WB executives are at the heart of everything. So, with that in mind, is it any surprise that Suicide Squad’s box office dropped off like a motherf—ker in its second week?
Suicide Squad’s steep decline in its second weekend is no joke for an anxious Warner Bros., even if the anti-superhero film has already grossed more than $465 million worldwide. In an ideal world, tentpoles should fall no more than 60 percent. But according to Sunday estimates, David Ayer’s movie tumbled 67 percent to $43.8 million in its sophomore outing at the domestic box office, after debuting to a hearty $133.7 million. The decline could be closer to 68 percent once final weekend numbers are tallied.
Suicide Squad was skewered by critics — it got a Rotten Tomatoes score of just 27 percent. But it is hardly the only summer 2016 summer tentpole with weak legs, whether because of dismal reviews or general apathy among moviegoers. While Suicide Squad registered the second-biggest second weekend decline of any summer title, that dubious distinction of the biggest second-weekend drop goes to Warcraft, an all-out flop that got a Rotten Tomatoes score of 28 and tumbled 70 percent after debuting to a paltry $24.2 million.
Suicide Squad’s second weekend is a big blow for Warners, as it rolls out the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) in the hopes of rivaling Marvel and resurrecting the glory days of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. Earlier this year, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice fell even more, 69 percent during its second weekend. And like Suicide Squad, it also ran up against critics catcalls and received the exact same Rotten Tomatoes score of 27 percent. Dawn of Justice eventually topped out at $872.7 million globally, although analysts had originally expected it to hit $1 billion.
In its first 12 days in release, Suicide Squad has grossed $465.4 million worldwide, including a 10-day domestic total of $222.9 million. At that pace, analysts say Suicide Squad won’t catch up with the $363 million earned by Fox’s Deadpool earlier this year in North America (that movie dipped 57 percent in its second outing). And Suicide Squad may not match Marvel and Disney’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which took in $333.2 million domestically after falling 55 percent in its second outing when it was released last August.
My take is that money is money and while North American box offices might lag, international box offices often save bad films from losing money. I’m sure Suicide Squad won’t COST Warner Bros money. But it won’t bring in the kind of box office haul they hoped it would. Suicide Squad – like Batman vs. Superman – was supposed to be a billion-dollar-plus box office. And it’s not going to reach that. And who should we blame? The actors, who were just doing their jobs? Or the executives and the producers? #HotMess
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet, WENN.
Just don’t ruin Wonder Woman. Just don’t ruin Wonder Woman.
DC Comic movies are just so dark and unenjoyable to watch apart from Christian Bale Batman 2 and 3. They even managed to suck out the fun from Superman.
I agree. They’re no fun to watch. They’re depressing and tedious.
Zack Snyder’s movies are almost always joyless. I don’t want to go sit in a theatre and watch them.
No you can include Bale’s Batman 2 and 3 as well. Though I still think Suicide Squad was ok and not bad for second tier heroes. People who didn’t follow the comics didn’t know who some of these characters were.
I agree that MOS wasn’t that good. It’s like they tried to turn Superman, who supposed to represent light and hope into the Dark Knight.
@V4Real – serious question. You thought “The Dark Knight” wasn’t fun to watch? I thought that was the movie nearly 100% of audiences/critics agreed was a good movie. I suppose everyone’s definition of “fun” is different.
If all DC movies could be that quality, I’d be fine with it. Let Marvel do the fun, humorous stuff. Let DC do the more gritty stuff. It’s still fun for most audiences. For me, good = fun.
Dark Knight was so overrated, there I said it. It was one of those movies where everyone got caught up in how awesome everyone said it was, and how Heath Ledger was so AMAZING, they came in with their opinions already formed.
I’m with you, @Bridget. I didn’t care for The Dark Knight at all. Heath Ledger was good, but Bale’s affected Batman voice was so goofy. I passed on the sequels.
I didn’t see MoS or BvS until long after their release, and I’ve got to say that I thought they were better than the hype would’ve had me believe. They weren’t great, no, but they weren’t nearly as bad as I was expecting.
I have hopes for it as its been directed by an Oscar winning woman, thou I’ve yet to be convinced about giving the title role to a model who has limited acting experience. U just need to look at Cara Whatsherface in Suicide Squad to see how that turned out.
Just FYI, Patty Jenkins has never won an Oscar. Never even been nominated. There have only been four women ever Oscar-nominated for Best Director: (not in chronological order) Sofia Coppola, Jane Campion, Lina Wertmuller, and Kathryn Bigelow, with the latter having been the only woman to ever win the award.
This! For real!! I’m just glad it’s another stinging slap in the face of Cara – cocaine vacuum – Delevinge and will hopefully do irreparable damage to her “career”. (Cuz you know..,.talentless, priveledged, nobody).
I saw Gal in the Fast and Furious movies, and she was appaling. Really really bad.
Too late. The linked article on Pajiba says the movie is a mess. The insider says he has heard rumblings that the same problems that ruined SS are messing with WW and that just like SS and Dawn of Justice the trailer over promises (probably because the marketing company know what sells unlike the WB execs). The WW reference is towards the end of the piece.
Of course Patty Jenkins insists that WW is not a mess.
http://www.avclub.com/article/patty-jenkins-doesnt-think-her-wonder-woman-mess-241074
They already ruined WW with that horrible casting decision.
I saw the WW trailer on the big screen when I was at Suicide Squad and my 16yo son, who hadn’t seen the trailer yet, said he was underwhelmed. I was too but I don’t think I count since I had already seen the trailer previously.
Agreed,starting with Gal.
I think they should blame Hollywood and their lack of risk that the box office bombs. I can see why people would rather watch tv than movies these days. ORIGINALITY, Hollywood should try it sometime.
This!!! There was an interesting article on Forbes about how Hollywood’s reliance on tentpoles is collapsing in on itself. Hope it’s ok that I link it!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2016/08/09/box-office-hollywood-is-trapped-in-a-prisoners-dilemma-of-tentpole-oversaturation/#3dbd464e5517
Yes, and Spielberg/Lucas called it in 2013….
It’s a vicious cycle. I can understand where these business execs are coming from.
People aren’t going to the movie theaters. Ticket prices are high partially because of this. Movie theaters and studios need to make the same amount of money from less people. Because ticket prices are high, less people go – they only go for spectacle or an “event” movie like a blockbuster. So studios think that’s where the money is.
Not only that, but things like piracy are cutting into profits. Studios need to find something, some surefire thing, that will draw people into the theaters, a spectacle or “event” movie. Hence the remakes and sequels and blockbusters.
But that bores people so less people come. It’s a vicious cycle, as I said.
And when studios do take a risk (“The Nice Guys” is a recent example of this), nobody shows up. The movie bombs at the box office. So studios are in a bind. I don’t blame them. I can see what position they’re in. With that being said, they aren’t necessarily thinking of all the little people at their companies – just themselves.
Ticket prices have been going up for many years now, even I’m the face of record box office years. Theaters have extra costs added in because they’ve had to do major technological upgrades, but the reality is that it’s still a choice to raise ticket prices the way they’ve been raised. The problem is that execs thought it was a great idea to swing for the fences and put all of their money into summer tent pole movies, with the thinking that they’re easier bets to sell because they can count on men to show up. This debacle is all their own making, with their inability to make movies that have reasonable budgets (goodbye, mid-level movie), manage costs, or to come up with original ideas. When the bulk of these movies are made by the same type of people – baseball hat wearing director, white male lead, pretty ingenue – and a complete refusal to deviate from that formula 90% of the time, it’s studios own fault.
I am an avid movie goer. I have not been going to the movies this summer because there is absolutely, unequivocally nothing I am interested in seeing. When there has been a decent movie (I am looking at you Star Trek: Beyond) it has opened opposite something else then it is gone the following weekend. I saw Star Trek Beyond twice this summer because it was exactly what I wanted in a summer movie: it was funny, exciting, good action, great female main character, and really nicely paced. I really recommend seeing it. Again, not because it was an exceptional movie but it was a good summer movies (as in what I used to expect in summer movies every weekend). I saw Tarzan (much better than reviews), Indep. Day 2 (horrific, absolutely, mind numbing. who green lit that mess), Lights Out (good scary movie), Conjuring 2 (not so scary as unexpected love story) and that’s about it for the summer movies. Again, Star Trek trumped them all. After binge watching all weekend Peaky Blinders I much prefer TV or streaming over the movies, not because I do not want to spend the money or leave the house (because I DO) but because the movie houses are not making movies I want to see! I did love Deadpool too. Rant over.
I love movies, But I am starting to get tired of HBO, and Cinemax same old same old.m I think people will start looking for fresh stuff online. I wonder if part of it that people think these celebrities are over paid.
Right here. How is it possible that television manages to churn out all kinds of new without totally breaking the bank? So few movies that I have any interest in come out. They’re huge, gory sausage fests or huge gory superhero crap or misogynist on the vaguely down low…. And the actors are rarely anyone I want to see. I don’t mind derivative – nothing new under the sun, right? – I mind flat out copies.
Commercials.
Because different people make television. Movie executives are pretty much the worst.
Yes!!
Men, obviously. Isn’t that what we do here?
Definitely can’t blame the actors. They were doing the best they could with what they had–which wasn’t a lot. The Suicide Squad just suffered from being incredibly generic for having such an interesting concept to work with. It showed that the script was written in 6 weeks. On top of that, the movie went from being dark and brooding to funny. It was constant and all over the place. And they expected the soundtrack to do the heavy lifting. You can tell WB tried to rebound from the BvS criticism, but this was poor effort.
It blows my mind, the amounts of money involved in these conversations.
I wonder if these filmmakers like Zack Snyder thinks that they are creating masterpieces and hence are not that interested in selling the product and appealing to the mases? And whoever is responsible, do not blame the Joker as Jared made it pretty clear that his briliant performance was cut. I wonder does Jared keeps in touch with the Joker, do they talk on the phone or in the bathroom mirror and cry together about this evil done to them?
His performance was not brilliant, and I don’t think the cut scenes would have made a difference. It’s very true that the Joker didn’t need to be in this movie and that fact was a distraction, but I also didn’t think his performance was all that solid.
My verdict is out on the Joker. The character was so unnecessary in this movie that any time he was on the screen, it made you feel like you were in a different film (a film that seemed much more interesting, to be honest). I think that disconnection is also what didn’t help his performance. Maybe if he had more scenes, you could get lost in the character a little more. As it stands, his performance was so jarring, because his scenes were thrown in and jarring.
There is a lot of chatter that Jared was actually cut out because his Joker was so cringey, test audiences didnt respond to it.
I mean, look at him. How did anyone not recognize that Joker was going to be a total misfire?
I think lots of them are delusional and genuinely think they are doing art: I don’ t know if at one point they used to acknowledge that their stuff was commercial and crappy but they just convinced themselves that no, they are Artists, to cope with the fact that they weren’ t being respected enough, or they’ ve always been like that. I think Snyder is one of those who have always believed he was bleeding art. James Cameron is another. It’ s not that they think they are just getting by, they are convinced that stuff like Sucker Punch and Avatar are the pinnacle of storytelling and cinematography. I think the ones who are genuinely conscious that they are lying to sell their product are few and far between. It happens to lots of actors as well.
These films are all the same to me and I seem unable to distinguish between the good ones (Marvel?) and the bad ones (DC?) – they all look like bangs and crashes with a few incuts of feeble dialogue and I can’t work out how one assesses the quality. So I don’t know who is to blame for the flop of something that seems indistinguishable from the hits!
However. I think I should be able to blame Cara Delevigne for everything, just because a) she’s in the film, b) I’m a snarky old boot and c) she gets on my nerves.
I know what you mean about Cara, the Manic Pixie Angry Baby Dream Girl act she puts on annoys me to no end.
You wouldnt be wrong about blaming Cara. The dialogue was crappy and the action scenes were rather flat, but the only part of the movie I found absolutely atrocious was her. If Enchantress had been played by a competent actress, this film would be elevated from mediocre to quite acceptable. She was awful and I dont think Im exaggerating when I say it’s some of the most awful acting Ive ever seen. I cant recall ever being that annoyed by someones acting.
Blame the assumption that superhero films will perform despite cohesion, a terrible script and no character development. On the other hand, piracy of movies is rife.
I didn’t necessarily love the movie, or thought it was terrible either…but it was definitely clunky. And with scenes being cut, they took one of the most hyped charecters (besides Harley Quinn) The Joker, and did a great disservice to Leto by making him absent. Though I get that The Joker will probably have a larger part in another movie. And don’t even get me started about Enchantress…
But I don’t know if there were editing issues too? The script, direction, etc. I guess in the end, I just kind of hope Ayer’s is out.
Haven’t seen it but from what I can gather from the fans Joker should have had a bigger part, the Enchantess is actually a minor character. Cara was the WORST choice for this role, or any role as she the worst actress I have seen in a long time. How the hell did she even get the part? Who’d she tap to get it?
And yes, Zack synder is sh!t. He’s known as a douche. He had a few decent movies I.e. 300. It his ego got bigger than his talents and he fancies himself as some sort of guru who is the only person who can make movies from comic books.
I saw it this Friday, half of the movie for me was: What’s going on?? Why are they doing x,y,z? What?
Yeah, a lot of editing problems, and I went with a positive vibe; I didn’t think Batman vs Superman was that bad (don’t get me wrong, it’s a hot mess, but meh I sort of enjoy it).
so Suicide Squad? NO BUENO. I’m praying for Wonder Woman, that film needs to deliver.
They tried to cover too much ground, too many characters, and the villain was ridiculous. The story of the villain was awful and the actress playing her not much better. Viola Davis and Margot Robbie were both amazing, and Will Smith was solid. Joel Kinnaman wasn’t given much to work with, but he always performs. And ditto for Jay Hernandez as Diablo – great for what he was given.
But the rest felt like throw-aways, including Jared Leto as the Joker – they should have covered that story in another movie and Margot was far superior to Jared in this movie (and I typically like Jared).
The script and storyline was garbage, and even the solid actors in this movie couldn’t save it. That being said, the soundtrack was fantastic and the action was enough to moderately entertain if you like action movies.
Joel Kinnaman does always perform, doesn’t he? I didn’t totally hate him in that unnecessary Robocop reboot, he really impressed me in House of Cards, and I was honestly surprised by him in Suicide Squad (his character has little coherence from scene to scene but Rick Flag somehow still seemed human).
Basically Suicide Squad wasn’t all bad because it confirmed that I need to watch The Killing.
Oh, he’s delicious in The Killing! His character is a little dark (maybe a lotta dark) and he carries it well. And Mireille Enos is wonderful. I didn’t love the series, though, after the first 1/2 of the first season. But he’s definitely someone to watch.
He is good in the Killing. That show is all kinds of fantastic. If like me, you prefer your shows to have a smart slow boil like say The Fall or The Wire, you will love it. I couldnt finish Robocop and I am unimpressed with him in Suicide Squad, though.
I was going to mention that open letter and I’m glad you linked it here. The fact that the lower people will continue to lose their jobs but they won’t cut Zack off is ridiculous. How much money does he have to lose before that happens? Awful.
And this point I’ll declare the DCEU DOA. Unless JL and WW are MASSIVE I don’t think it’s any match for the MCU
It’s funny, while I agree that the post-Nolan DCU has been no match in quality for Marvel, Suicide Squad is actually going to out gross a good number of the Marvel movies at the box office. Especially from a “first movie” for the characters perspective. Crazy right? And kind of sad.
If WW and/or Justice League are actually good? They are going to make an INSANE amount of money.
The thing is, Marvel didn’t spend as much on its early instalments – and I will bet money WB had to spend even more than its stated budget, with the SS reshoots.
IMO people forget that the first Marvel movies weren’t good. The Hulk(s) were messes and very few liked Ironman 2. Because the Marvel movies mostly do very good now, it seems people expect DC to start out at the same level.
What’s interesting is that Suicide Squad is on par or will slightly out gross some of Marvel’s “solo” films. However, Marvel does a good job of going all out for the production of it’s ensemble films and that shows. Those have each grossed close to or over a billion dollars. For Suicide Squad to be an ensemble film it should have done better. And as teacakes said, profit margins are the concerns for studios. Between production and promotion, I assuming they spent around $300 million.
ETA: @Hejhej – The Hulks were AWFUL. However, those aren’t considered in the MCU. The MCU began with Iron Man.
I’m just curious as to whether something from the DCU can breakout given that Marvel seems to have plateaued. Civil War was GREAT and yet even with everyone, the kitchen sink, and Spider-Man, it’s going to gross less than Iron Man 3 and Age of Ultron (which was not a very good movie). Infinity War? Maybe…depends. I just wonder if there are any surprises and stunners left. (The adventurous little girl I was (and the feminist in me) really really hopes it is Wonder Woman).
Sorry, the first Hulk isn’t in the MCU. The MCU began with Iron Man. Also, it would be different if DC was trying to earnestly build a cinematic universe. However, they’re rushing everything and trying to strike while the superhero iron is hot (and it shows). I think Marvel, overall, did well with it’s solo debut films. Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America. CA less so because he’s kind of a boring character. And then there’s Guardians. While not a solo film, it introduced an entirely new cast of characters fantastically. And then there’s Ant-Man… freaking Ant-Man. And even that did well. While those latter two are later in the MCU, I think there’s something to be said for Marvel being able to introduce less beloved/well-known characters and still bring home a great movie, to the point that they’re both getting sequels. I think one of the reasons that superhero films make money is because people like seeing characters they love come to life. So the fact that Marvel can introduce Guardians, Ant-Man, and Black Panther in a way that leaves the audience wanting more is pretty spectacular. I really want DC to get it’s act together, because they’ve got phenomenal characters that deserve great films.
@Mia – I think WW and Black Panther will. Just because out of all these superhero films, those are the next “new” ones. Avengers is still the top earner because–aside from it being a good film–it’s the first time we’ve seen anything like it on the big screen. At this point, Marvel has simply given us too much of a good thing. But having a female superhero solo film and a POC superhero solo film will definitely break from the monotony.
I think people already said it but I agree. They didn’t spend anything on the early outings because it wasn’t the MCU yet. Iron Man was the debut of the MCU and since then its had rare misses. I think Thor is the weakest solo tentpole for the MCU and it still does okay. Their main solo outings Iron Man first and now Captain America did extremely well. Even a miss like IM2 did well. With the MCU firmly established they can take risks now hence the phase 3 is introducing new characters to the slate. Add to that AOS and you have a massive universe.
The thing that DC is struggling with is the script (pacing is such an issue) and the visuals for the movies. Not every DCEU movie has to be dark they can switch it up.
This wasn’t supposed to be a “first character” movie, though. When Batman v Superman stunk, Suicide Squad was supposed to be the redemption. Instead it was another clunker. And WB paid a MASSIVE amount of money for it. It doesn’t matter how much a movie grosses when they spent all the money ever on it.
I really enjoy the current DC movies and I think the problem is that they’re made to compete with the Marvel movies. They can’t and they shouldn’t. Someone in the important offices have let the budgets get SO big that all the movies will fail, whether they’re actually good or bad. Considering that the media is turned against them, WB should cut the cost of making the movies and just make the movies that want to make. Plenty of people see them and plenty of people enjoy them – just not as many as they want to. Their fault.
Also I definitly don’t think it’s because of the actors. I think they’re all doing what they can with what they get.
I thought the soundtrack was mostly distracting. The actors were fine save Cara. Her movement/acting was horrible. She was trying to channel Aksha from Queen of the Damned and failed. I didn’t believe that relationship for a minute.
This movie was a mess. I didn’t hate it, but was disappointed. CLEARLY not wht the Director wanted to present to the world.
I think they have a “hate on” for this movie. It’s box office take isn’t that bad, and it looks to break even. Why don’t they trash the Bourne movie and Star Trek, which is a colossal flop?
Unpopular opinion here! Went to see SS on Saturday w/ my bro, who’s a big superhero fan. Our veredict? It’s no masterpiece, but we enjoyed ourselves. Viola Davis and Will Smith deserve all the praise they’ve gotten, which is no surprise. Margot not only steals the movie, she GETS the character. I thought she played Harley as a mentally unwell woman, as opposed to some romantic heroine. If it comes across as the other way around, I blame it on the editing. I don’t know much about Joel Kinnaman, but he was perfectly fine to me. Also unpopular, we actually enjoyed El Diablo and Jai Courtney’s character. They didn’t have much to do, though. Jared Leto should have just tried, well, acting, and using his talent. And Cara needs to let it go and stick to modelling. All that being said, the failure of the movie is not on the actors, not in the least (yeap, not even Cara).
I enjoyed Diablo a lot too! Glad to see him getting some recognition.
I disagree on Cara though. I really think that’s some of the worst acting Ive ever seen.
Oh, absolutely. Look, I have nothing against her, in fact you could say I sort of like her, but her acting is no bueno. That being said, she was just doing her job, like the rest of her co-stars. Blaming her for the movie being unsuccessful is a bit unfair to me.
ITA.
I hate to be a buzz kill.. But I think it’s crude to call a movie Suicide anything… How is it okay to call a super hero movie Suicide Squad? It’s disgusting.
The only superhero movie good enough to re-watch is Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson’s “Batman.”
Blame Cara Delevigne. She clearly, absolutely was the worst part of the movie.
I went to the movie last weekend only because I had a free movie pass. It wasn’t quite as terrible as the reviews but it was pretty bad. I’m a huge comic book fan, spanning all across the board, and I was willing to be forgiving. The villain was bad. I was very surprised that actress got such a huge part! The Joker was BAD. I hated seeing him on screen. He acted his face off in the worst way. Harley Quinn was good, although I noticed she would lose her HQ mojo in some group scenes (it was weird). Will Smith was good but they made Deadshot too goody goody. Standout was Diablo. He kicked ass and I like him. Katana was also awesome, even though she had few lines, I left the theater wanting to BE HER.
I really hope Wonder Woman isn’t terrible. I so want it to be successful. I will see it in theaters for sure.
Snyder needs to leave. Only good directors create good movies. It’s not even the script: how many times a good script has been ruined by bad directors? Also happens the opposite, but good direction can overcome bad script, never vice versa.
I blame Will Smith.
Im not completely versed on comic book characters, but my son said that Deadshot was not supposed to be a “good guy” and Will Smith was his typical will-self in the movie.
It upsets the social justice warriors, because it contains fanservice, a woman, who is in love with a mass murderer and lots of guns.
Duuuuude, if that’s true, then based on the box office, the whole country must be social justice warriors.
No, it was a weak movie. If Deadpool can have bare breasts and exploding heads, yet still be a massive hit, then violence and bootie shorts were never Suicide Squad’s problem.