• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Spoilers Suicide Squad - Grading & Discussion

Grade it!


  • Total voters
    107
Watched Assault On Arkham again at weekend, and even for an animated film it's 10x the movie SS is in the way of plot, character, humour and action. The main curious visual similarities (though perhaps predictable) I found were:
*dossier/graphic intros to Task Force X/SS (though done much better)
*disposable head-boom squad member (KGBeast here, though I guess he'd already been offed in BvS)
*Harley smashing a window
Probably more others might spot. It did also make me realise that, much as I liked Kinnaman's Rick Flagg performance, he and his men were really pretty redundant bar the forced romance subplot.
You're not the only one who feels this way.
CBR's Why Batman: Assault on Arkham is a better Suicide Squad movie than Suicide Squad.
 
Number one for second weekend in a row. Clearly someone's enjoying the movie.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4215&p=.htm
How much did you get paid to write that spin? Suicide Squad continues the DCEU trend of a strong opening weekend due to fantastic marketing and then a sudden fall off a cliff in the second weekend due to poor word of mouth and lack of interest from general audiences. Again, the film is by no means a bomb, but a 67.4% drop is not good and it means that people (in general) are not enjoying the film.
 
How much did you get paid to write that spin? Suicide Squad continues the DCEU trend of a strong opening weekend due to fantastic marketing and then a sudden fall off a cliff in the second weekend due to poor word of mouth and lack of interest from general audiences. Again, the film is by no means a bomb, but a 67.4% drop is not good and it means that people (in general) are not enjoying the film.

Why does it matter to you whether people are enjoying the film or not?
 
Why does it matter to you whether people are enjoying the film or not?
You should be addressing that to ichab. He's the one who is spinning a steep second weekend drop (which means poor word of mouth) into positive reception. He's the one who cares if people enjoys the movie or not.
 
Marvel is talking to the Chinese government like they are children afraid of the demon under their bed... "Don't worry it's just an illegal alien from space hiding from INS, nothing to worry about, carry on."

China gets a version of the truth that they can handle.
And that is different from the way western media is produced how exactly?
 
You should be addressing that to ichab. He's the one who is spinning a steep second weekend drop (which means poor word of mouth) into positive reception. He's the one who cares if people enjoys the movie or not.

He enjoys the movie and wants it to succeed. I don't see anything wrong with that.
 
Well, I think we're looking at this a little obliquely.

The second week drop off rate has been a struggle for Hollywood for a few years now, whether the films have good reviews or not. The majority of publicity and advertising is loaded solely at that opening week(end) and then basically gets dropped. This isn't just a DC issue, not at all.

Look at 2014 - Amazing Spiderman saw a 61% drop off, Godzilla saw a 67% drop off and X-Men Days of Future Past saw a 64% drop off. In 2013, Iron Man 3 saw a 58% drop off. In 2015, Age of Ultron saw a 59% drop off.

Heck, even Civil War dropped 59%.

Admittedly, where a film posts on that first week(end) has a big impact on how much that drop off looks. Civil War hit massive, so its second week is still huge ($90+).

So, to see a 67% drop off, though sounding huge, it is more dependant on what the third and fourth weeks look like. Will it drop a further 60-70% or not? BvS, with its 69% drop off, was hit hard, but it then had another 57% drop off in week three and, by week, four, barely scraped above $10m.

With so much content available, not only at the cinema, but at home too, barring the uber-fans, repeat theatrical viewings are few and far between, if not wholly excluded from most people's "social-equation" full stop. To have true "legs", like that of Avatar, Titanic, or The Force Awakens, you have to create a product that is beyond the fans, outside of that niche model of "curiosity". Otherwise you bank on your first weekend hoping to refill your coffers.

Suicide Squad certainly fits that mould of being a "niche" product, and its first week(end) performance was very likely carried by the "uber-fan" and standard cinema-going "curiosity", thanks to a strong ad campaign. But does it have repeat value? The film comes with generally high audience ratings, which one would think would drive people back for repeat viewings. But with (frankly) daft ticket prices, the real repeat-value of the film may not be seen until it hits VOD/Blu etc (something like Guardians of the Galaxy did $128m in US DVD/Blu Ray sales, alone).

But a $175m price tag and $150m marketing campaign, films like these need to burst out of the gate HUGE so they can at least finish the race, rather tripping at a second or third fence because they ran out of energy to carry them past the "break even" post. SS will struggle because, as an unproven property this small, it should not be playing in the £200m sandpit. Marvel took a gamble on Guardians of the Galaxy and it paid off. Now all of their films will have the £175m+ budget and will continue to do so. DC wants to play in that sandbox, so created an OTT spectacle of a film with an inordinate budget (for its property and exposure) and may suffer the consequences. A more Deadpool approach would have perhaps suited the film and trimmed some of its excesses.

The film makers/production company also somewhat shot themselves in the foot by creating a story that doesn't fit the international box office model - you want money, you want China. You may only get 25% back, but in the case of Transformers or especially Pacific Rim, you want that extra £100-$300m that China will bring you. No film fan or critic wants to see films that are "tailor made" for countries, yet any production company would be daft to not want it on their portfolio - goddesses and demons for SS could nail the coffin shut for DC on this venture, like it was for Ghostbusters (which was doomed from the start - China was NEVER going to allow it to be released with its obvious content issues).

Hugo - disliked the film greatly, but day after day has edged closer to loathing it
 
Last edited:
Maybe they made the Joker less abusive to HQ in order for women to like her more. Of course HQ is crazy, but she isn't stupid.
 
Well, I think we're looking at this a little obliquely.

The second week drop off rate has been a struggle for Hollywood for a few years now, whether the films have good reviews or not. The majority of publicity and advertising is loaded solely at that opening week(end) and then basically gets dropped. This isn't just a DC issue, not at all.

Look at 2014 - Amazing Spiderman saw a 61% drop off, Godzilla saw a 67% drop off and X-Men Days of Future Past saw a 64% drop off. In 2013, Iron Man 3 saw a 58% drop off. In 2015, Age of Ultron saw a 59% drop off.

Heck, even Civil War dropped 59%.

Admittedly, where a film posts on that first week(end) has a big impact on how much that drop off looks. Civil War hit massive, so its second week is still huge ($90+).

So, to see a 67% drop off, though sounding huge, it is more dependant on what the third and fourth weeks look like. Will it drop a further 60-70% or not? BvS, with its 69% drop off, was hit hard, but it then had another 57% drop off in week three and, by week, four, barely scraped above $10m.

With so much content available, not only at the cinema, but at home too, barring the uber-fans, repeat theatrical viewings are few and far between, if not wholly excluded from most people's "social-equation" full stop. To have true "legs", like that of Avatar, Titanic, or The Force Awakens, you have to create a product that is beyond the fans, outside of that niche model of "curiosity". Otherwise you bank on your first weekend hoping to refill your coffers.

Suicide Squad certainly fits that mould of being a "niche" product, and its first week(end) performance was very likely carried by the "uber-fan" and standard cinema-going "curiosity", thanks to a strong ad campaign. But does it have repeat value? The film comes with generally high audience ratings, which one would think would drive people back for repeat viewings. But with (frankly) daft ticket prices, the real repeat-value of the film may not be seen until it hits VOD/Blu etc (something like Guardians of the Galaxy did $128m in US DVD/Blu Ray sales, alone).

But a $175m price tag and $150m marketing campaign, films like these need to burst out of the gate HUGE so they can at least finish the race, rather tripping at a second or third fence because they ran out of energy to carry them past the "break even" post. SS will struggle because, as an unproven property this small, it should not be playing in the £200m sandpit. Marvel took a gamble on Guardians of the Galaxy and it paid off. Now all of their films will have the £175m+ budget and will continue to do so. DC wants to play in that sandbox, so created an OTT spectacle of a film with an inordinate budget (for its property and exposure) and may suffer the consequences. A more Deadpool approach would have perhaps suited the film and trimmed some of its excesses.

The film makers/production company also somewhat shot themselves in the foot by creating a story that doesn't fit the international box office model - you want money, you want China. You may only get 25% back, but in the case of Transformers or especially Pacific Rim, you want that extra £100-$300m that China will bring you. No film fan or critic wants to see films that are "tailor made" for countries, yet any production company would be daft to not want it on their portfolio - goddesses and demons for SS could nail the coffin shut for DC on this venture, like it was for Ghostbusters (which was doomed from the start - China was NEVER going to allow it to be released with its obvious content issues).

Hugo - disliked the film greatly, but day after day had edged closer to loathing it
Star Trek only got one weekend to itself before Suicide Squad came out. Had the two movies been reversed in their release dates I'm sure Trek would be better off. If memory serves, GOG didn't really have competition when it was released so timing can have an effect on box office performance.
 
You should be addressing that to ichab. He's the one who is spinning a steep second weekend drop (which means poor word of mouth) into positive reception. He's the one who cares if people enjoys the movie or not.

Name one movie that opened big this year that didn't have a big drop its next weekend. It's hardly unprecedented as you are trying to make it out. Plus the fact remains that it finished number one on its second weekend. I'm not sure why this fact puts your knickers in such a twist.
 
Last edited:
Name one movie that opened big this year that didn't have a big drop its next weekend.
Sure.

1. Captain America 3 - $179 million opening weekend - 59.5% second weekend drop
2. Zootopia - $75 million opening weekend - 30.8% second weekend drop
3. The Jungle Book - $103 million opening weekend - 40.4% second weekend drop
4 Finding Dory - $135 million opening weekend - 46% second weekend drop
5. Batman v Superman - $166 million opening weekend - 69.1% second weekend drop
6. Deadpool - $132 million opening weekend - 57.4% second weekend drop
11. Suicide Squad - $133 million opening weekend - 67.4% second weekend drop.

Those are the six highest grossing films of 2016. Batman v Superman and X-Men Apocalypse (another poorly received movie) are the only films in the top 10 to have a second weekend drop more than 60%. Deadpool had practically the exact same opening weekend as Suicide Squad, but it's positive word of mouth gave it a strong second weekend.
 
Why are we debating drops over a weekend? It's not like these films flopped hard and didn't make a sh*tzillion dollars. Money none of us will ever see.
 
Finding Dory (45%)
Jungle Book (40%)
Zootopia (23%)

They are the only three at 45% or below this year for "big releases" . Though The Force Awakens only had a 32% drop back in Christmas 2015.

As I was saying above, the drop off is relative to its opening week(end)

Civil War did $223m over its first week, then dropping 60% in its second. It still did $91m
Zootopia only did $92.5m over its first week and sustained well, to then take $71m in its second.

Still, less than Civil War... and it in fact sustained better overall. Zootopia then did $53m in its third week and $38m in its fourth, whilst Civil War did $43m and $23 over the same time period.

In the overall stakes Civil War wins because of its massive up-front haul. And Finding Dory was holding at $71m for its third week.

Sure all of those films have added ticket sales because they are "family" films, but SS was a PG13, same a Jurassic World or TFA or Ultron, all of which banked on family outings.

Sustaining in the market these days is very very hard, hence why films are pushed for 3D releases in their first week (example - there was only one screening a day of the 2D version of BvS at my local cinema for its first week, an early evening performance), get front loaded publicity that dies almost the day of release and then get quick, harsh cut offs over the next 7-day haul because (a) usually there's another film coming out, (b) the audience has WAY many more home entertainment options than before, and (c) very few films have a true "repeat value" to them at the theatrical cost level. Why spend another £10 to see SS at the cinema when I can buy it on Blu-Ray for £12 at Christmas?

SS was always going to drop. How badly it drops next week will be indicative as to whether DC/WB will make decent money from it. But considering it beat out both a family film (Pete's Dragon) AND an adult film (Sausage Party), shows that the audience is there. Let's see how it fares against a CGI-filled remake of a well-loved (if daft and hoary) classic Sword & Sandles epic this weekend. I can see a third week at the top for SS at around the $25-30m mark.

Hugo - not that it deserves it, mind

Note: my figures are on weeks, not weekends :)
 
Sure.

1. Captain America 3 - $179 million opening weekend - 59.5% second weekend drop
2. Zootopia - $75 million opening weekend - 30.8% second weekend drop
3. The Jungle Book - $103 million opening weekend - 40.4% second weekend drop
4 Finding Dory - $135 million opening weekend - 46% second weekend drop
5. Batman v Superman - $166 million opening weekend - 69.1% second weekend drop
6. Deadpool - $132 million opening weekend - 57.4% second weekend drop
11. Suicide Squad - $133 million opening weekend - 67.4% second weekend drop.

Those are the six highest grossing films of 2016. Batman v Superman and X-Men Apocalypse (another poorly received movie) are the only films in the top 10 to have a second weekend drop more than 60%.
Even by that high standard Civil War BARELY misses 60%. Zootopia didn't even reach a hundred million dollars and the rest that did suffered at least a 40% drop which is still a lot in my book. Hugo pretty much makes my point.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top