Margot Robbie, James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad" Warner Bros.
On Friday's second Friday, The Suicide Squad made a total of $2.24 million (-81.4%). This brought its eight-day total to $37.37 millions. The $185 million R-rated DC Films sequel to Suicide Squad earned $7.2 million (-72.5%) over a weekend, and only $42.4 million in a ten-day period. This is the worst Friday-to-Friday drop for any major comic-book movie. It trails only Batman v Superman's (-81.6% on an $81.6million opening day) or X-Men - Dark Phoenix (-83% on a $14 million opening Day). It will also experience one of the worst weekend drops for any major comic book movie, beating only Steel (-78% from an $870,068 weekend).
The film is actually playing very close to Fantastic Four which opened in August 2015 with $25.6 million. The film dropped 68% to a $8.1 million gross, and $42 million for a ten-day total. The differences between the two films are: A) The Suicide Squad received rave reviews; and B) Fantastic Four was not released during a pandemic or with a concurrent HBO Max streaming service. The 73% drop in Black Widow's popularity isn't as bad as the 69% or 67% drops for F9 in weekend 2. However, the MCU flick opened with $80million and the Fast Saga sequel with $70 million.
Suicide Squad's weekend two sales dropped 67%, but the debut of $133 million was impressive. Suicide Squad's 10-day gross is lower than Suicide Squad's $43.5 million second weekend gross. Fair enough, Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman 1985 both suffered massive 67% drop in weekend two. However, they eventually recovered. Suicide Squads was the summer's last biggie. It appealed to most people who wanted a Batman/Joker/Harley or Will Smith superhero movie. A $325 million cume (2.x), was leggier than Captain America: Civil War ($409million/$179 million). Wonder Woman 1984 remained relevant due to little competition. She earned $46.5 million for a debut of $16.7 million and a 2.78x multiplier.
If The Suicide Squad continues to run as planned, it will end with domestic revenues of between $62 million-$69 million. Fantastic Four-like legs would give it $56million, which is less than the $65million opening day of Suicide Squad. It is impossible to blame the small numbers at Covid. If The Suicide Squad had opened in a non-Covid country last weekend, we would have been talking about a decrease from Suicide Squad ($325million domestic and $745million worldwide). This would be closer to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Out of the Shadows or The Secret Life of Pets 2. If we assume a 55% drop, this would mean a debut of over/under $60million, a $145million domestic finish, and a global sume of $366 million.
This is great news for Shazam! It only cost $90 millions. This is less true if you have a $185million-budgeted Suicide Squad 2 sequel. Could the strong pre-release reviews have resulted in a larger opening and longer legs Yes, but the sequel lacks many of the elements (no Will Smith or Batman, no Joker and Robbies third role as Harley), horrible reviews, and a lukewarm response for the Suicide Squad. It was never easy to recreate the appeal of its predecessor. It is similar to Skydance's hiring John Lasseter to head their animation department.
Both filmmakers were not marquee artists for general audiences. Most people associate Guardians of the Galaxy and the MCU the same way that most people associate Pixar and the Disney brand. Gunn's Suicide Squad film was a great added-value feature, but it wasn't enough to make the movie work, especially at $185 million. We movie-goers in the movie news bubble are clearly exaggerating Margot Robbie's popularity as Harley Quinn, and IdrisElba has never been as popular as he seems to be. The Suicide Squad's performance is not good enough even on a Covid curve. This is mainly because it has nothing to offer other than Oh, another Suicide Squad movie.
