True to form, James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad has easily topped the U.S Box Office charts, yet the numbers missed the mark as compared to what both Warner Bros. and analysts had been anticipating. Based on predictions, the studio had been sure that the R-rated comic book caper would effortlessly surpass $30 million for the frame however it finished out with $26.5 million from more than 4000 theaters.
Five summers ago, the DC supervillain extravaganza “Suicide Squad” had a massive $133.7 million debut weekend in North America alone, however, the critics and analysts were not impressed by the film itself. This weekend, however, the complete opposite happened; the critics loved the follow-up film, yet its earnings were disappointing as they fell below expectations.
Despite the low earnings, the movie was far from a flop. Due to the worldwide COVID-19 situation, lockdowns and restrictions, gauging films according to cinema earnings is not deemed practical anymore, and because Warner Bros. offers the chance to watch blockbusters at home via HBO Max streaming the same day it hits cinemas, has toppled over the metrics even further.
The Suicide Squad, being James Gunn’s big-budget superhero film earned positive reviews from critics, well-known stars, and the audience, while the film managed to score a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes while securing a 7.6/10 on IMDB.
One of the major factors that affected the film’s turnout was the rising cases of the Delta variant all across the globe; people were of course hesitant to sit in an enclosed area with strangers for more than 2 hours. Other than COVID, another reason affecting the film’s success rate was that it was a follow-up to 2016’s “Suicide Squad”; despite making $747 million globally, it had earned a 5.9/10 rating on IMDB and a less than 30% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The 2021 sequel consists of some of the same characters as the 2016 version and is less of a follow-up film and more of a second try.
