Even Without An HBO Max Release, It Seems THE SUICIDE SQUAD Still Would Have Flopped This Weekend

Even Without An HBO Max Release, It Seems THE SUICIDE SQUAD Still Would Have Flopped This Weekend

More details have been revealed about The Suicide Squad's streaming release this weekend, and, unfortunately, it seems that even without an HBO Max debut, the movie's opening was going to be disappointing.

News
By JoshWilding - Aug 10, 2021 04:08 AM EST
Filed Under: The Suicide Squad
Source: Deadline

The Suicide Squad arrived in theaters and on HBO Max last Friday, and the box office results for the movie have been disappointing to say the least. The pandemic has been blamed, as has that streaming release, but it seems the latter may not have had the negative impact you'd think. 

Deadline has shared some stats from Samba TV revealing that James Gunn's DC Comics movie was viewed by 2.8 million households in the U.S. this weekend. That puts it 26% behind Mortal Kombat which, despite mixed to negative reviews, drew a whopping 3.8 million households. On the plus side, The Suicide Squad is in front of Wonder Woman 1984 (2.2 million households) and Zack Snyder's Justice League (1.8 million households over four days). 

However, after one Twitter user crunched the numbers using the average price of a theater ticket this year - just shy of $10 - it's clear that The Suicide Squad would have still disappointed. A $54.5 million opening weekend in the current climate certainly wouldn't be looked at as a failure, but that's still less than 2016's Suicide Squad made during its first day of release. 

Even if you start playing around with the numbers and assume half of those households have at least two paying theatergoers in them, The Suicide Squad seemingly wasn't destined for major BO takings. 

Why not? It's the "Tomb Raider Trap."

For those of you unfamiliar with the phrase, it's used by box office pundits to describe what happens when a bad movie becomes a box office hit, only for a future superior sequel to be rejected by paying customers who are afraid of being stung for a second time (Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life made just $156 million compared to the original Tomb Raider's $274 million). 

Between this, a $185 million budget, and a marketing spend of over $100 million, a third Suicide Squad movie sadly appears to be off the table. Hopefully, Peacemaker will be successful enough to ensure these characters can return on HBO Max, but it seems Gunn wasn't the DCEU saviour Warner Bros. hoped for. 
 

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Himura
Himura - 8/10/2021, 4:41 AM
Aaaaaand how many people torrented a full HD digital release on day 1?
Tasmaniac
Tasmaniac - 8/10/2021, 4:44 AM
@Himura - 😶 🙋🏻‍♂️
KWilly
KWilly - 8/10/2021, 4:55 AM
@Himura - I actually watched it on HBO Max like a good little subscriber, idk why lol.
TheMapleSyrup
TheMapleSyrup - 8/10/2021, 5:10 AM
@TyrantBossMedia - I'd say one person per household knows how to torrent. I was able to show it to my whole family for free. So I'd dare say it's more than you think
ScottSummers
ScottSummers - 8/10/2021, 5:20 AM
@TyrantBossMedia - That is woefully naive. You may be partly right regarding the U.S., Asia and Latin America absolutely has a high percentage of piracy. Even if most people don't have a technical know-how, they are still very much aware of "downloading movies from the internet", and certainly either have someone in their household who can torrent, or can quite easily go out and buy a bootleg from a street vendor.
ScottSummers
ScottSummers - 8/10/2021, 5:32 AM
@TyrantBossMedia - My comment is derived both from my travels, my family, and the 22 years I spent living abroad.

Most Latin American countries either have no IP protection law, or simply do not enforce it.

It absurdly easy to walk on a busy street or main avenue and find hawkers selling the lastest movies in HD, right there on the sidewalk. The market for that is HUGE.
LameLuka
LameLuka - 8/10/2021, 6:29 AM
@TyrantBossMedia - considering Black Widow was the most pirated movie so far. Clearly a lot of people do know what it is
SnideCut
SnideCut - 8/10/2021, 6:31 AM
@Himura - Many probably did but the majority of the global audience doesn't know what a torrent is, let alone how to download one.
SnideCut
SnideCut - 8/10/2021, 6:32 AM
@LameLuka - Yeah, but what number of people actually pirated it. I wager its going to be a number far below the actual global audience number
newhire13
newhire13 - 8/10/2021, 6:36 AM
@TyrantBossMedia - 😂 It’s 2021, BS people don’t know what a torrent is and how to find it for free
abd00bie
abd00bie - 8/10/2021, 6:54 AM
@TheMapleSyrup - for free lol shoulda charged them
mastakilla39
mastakilla39 - 8/10/2021, 7:07 AM
@newhire13 - @TyrantBossMedia is correct. the majority of the population will always be willing to pay for it legally due to its convenience vs learning how to steal it. This why itunes alone makes 30 billion USD each year despite music being the easiest to steal. people are lazy and are not tech savy enough nor do they want to learn it. when you torrent you risk your own security because with an unsecure p2p server: when you download from someone they download from you too. free proxys or p2p softwares do not guard you from any of this.
SonOfAGif
SonOfAGif - 8/10/2021, 8:12 AM
@mastakilla39 - Except there are now illegal streaming services from jail broken fire sticks and apps that allow people to view new releases. The studios aren't getting that money but the illegal streaming services do.
Kozmik
Kozmik - 8/10/2021, 11:35 AM
@mastakilla39 - I agree with the gist of your point with one exception. It has less to do with laziness – though that's certainly there – than a lot of people having better things to do with their time than to figure out how to torrent videos.

As someone who's only occasionally interested in it, I am not at all willing to invest the time and energy to figure out how to do it in a way that doesn't compromise not only my computer, but legalistic hurdles.
pyramosteu
pyramosteu - 8/10/2021, 1:12 PM
@Kozmik - My 11 year old sister knows what websites to watch movies
Kozmik
Kozmik - 8/10/2021, 1:41 PM
@pyramosteu - What's your point? So, your 11-year-old sister knows what website to watch movies. That's meaningless, especially since we were talking about tormenting and things that nature. Is she torrenting them? My guess is not.
Origame
Origame - 8/10/2021, 4:41 AM
This is why we say hbo max plus pandemic. And this also feels like a response to your "why it failed" list where no one understood why you insisted the pandemic/hbo max was so far down the list.
Tasmaniac
Tasmaniac - 8/10/2021, 4:42 AM
Tomb Raider Trap?

Erm, my memory may be a little fuzzy, but weren’t they both shit?
DTor91
DTor91 - 8/10/2021, 4:42 AM
@Tasmaniac - YUP
TheManOfSteelHI
TheManOfSteelHI - 8/10/2021, 4:42 AM
This doesn’t take into account that ppl like myself have a huge family so my whole family watched it with my one account. That would have been 12 different tickets instead of just one HBO Max view. Most ppl that have HBO max have families or friends and didnt watch it alone. It would have more than double that number shown.
aurorsand146
aurorsand146 - 8/10/2021, 5:00 AM
@TheManOfSteelHI - Exactly. It should say 2.8 million household not 2.8 million people.
vegetaray
vegetaray - 8/10/2021, 5:37 AM
@TheManOfSteelHI - I was about to post this exact same thing…Me and all my family / friends use the same damn account for all these HBO Max releases…We decided this was going to be our play way back when WB announced this was how they were going to be releasing their movies this year…It is what it is at this point…
mastakilla39
mastakilla39 - 8/10/2021, 7:24 AM
@TheManOfSteelHI @aurorsand146 @vegetaray - But that is hbo max's plan. The future for movies is now a long game, not a quick weekend at the box office where you have to split your profits with 6 producers, the theater, and actors. The plan was to follow Netflix's model to buy out the cast and crew for a certain price than reap all the benefits from streaming. They lose out on 12 different ticket sales for now but they are trying to train you in the long run to never cancel their subscription like what Netflix or gym memberships have done to the majority. So in the event that you don't see any of their movies or use their service they are still going to be getting a consistent income because they lose more money by producing 30 movies a year that cost over 100+ mil each and you/your family & friends only seeing 3 or 4 of them in theaters the 1st weekend.

Reason why they are converting back to the old model is that they spent too much money producing expensive films before the pandemic and cannot afford to pay everyone fairly yet. But once they copy netflix and cut back on producing expensive films and budgeting better than they can become more profitable using this new model.
globaltravels
globaltravels - 8/10/2021, 7:37 AM
@TheManOfSteelHI - i was about to say the same thing. HOUSEHOLD. Not 2.8 million people. What a [frick]ing moron.
manofillintent1
manofillintent1 - 8/10/2021, 4:42 AM
Film was still awesome, now the Batman is officially DCs next movie 🙌
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