Why Was The Suicide Squad A Box Office Flop?

Why Was The Suicide Squad a Box Office Flop?

James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad was released to right the wrongs of David Ayer’s 2016 Suicide Squad, which was met with a highly negative response from critics and fans. Ironically, the soft reboot massively unperformed at the box office, earning almost $600 million less than its predecessor. So why was the movie such a flop, and will the franchise survive after this failure?

The Suicide Squad Was Met with High Acclaim

The Suicide Squad made $167 million at the box office against a production budget of $185 million, making it the least successful offering in the DC Extended Universe to date. Despite the poor performance, it garnered an extremely positive critical response, with the consensus among experts that it was a massive improvement on its predecessor.

Warner Bros. Pictures made a fatal error in releasing the film to the HBO Max streaming platform on the same day it hit cinemas. It quickly became the third-most streamed movie on the platform, but these viewing figures clearly meant that people were opting to watch at home rather than pay for tickets.

There’s no Doubting the Franchise Potential

Despite underperforming, the Suicide Squad characters have great potential to take the DC Extended Universe forward. The lovable villains have proven incredibly popular, with Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn being a particular fan favourite. She already features in her own standalone film, and there are ideas about future projects involving the character. For example, there has been talk about a film that explores her troubled relationship with the Joker.

The Suicide Squad characters also have amazing scope when it comes to marketing the DC Extended Universe outside of the film series. They are well suited to the world of games, where the diversity of the characters provides a wealth of options for developers, and some of the newest slot machines online do just that, such as Suicide Squad slot game from Playtech at 888casino. Players can get a 100 per cent deposit match bonus to use on games like Suicide Squad and many others. There’s also Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League from Rocksteady Studios, which is set for release in 2022. 

Some of the characters are also set to be explored in other media. The first member of the antiheroes to be represented on television will be John Cena’s Peacemaker. A series named after the patriotic villain is due to air on HBO Max in January 2022.

DC Should Stick to Exclusive Cinematic Releases in Future

While the DC Extended Universe may be way behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the majority of its eleven titles have been successful. The studio will most likely learn its lesson from The Suicide Squad and stick to exclusive cinematic releases in the future. It would make a lot more sense to release movies to paying audiences for a month or two before dropping them on a streaming platform.

The Suicide Squad most likely flopped because of its dual release on HBO Max. Even though it was a failure, the characters are likely to play a pivotal role in the DCEU moving forward, as they have amazing franchise potential.