Suicide Squad Box Office Following BvS Pattern

Suicide Squad may have a record-setting weekend, but a deeper look at the numbers spells big trouble

Hey guys, remember when Batman v Superman had a massive opening weekend, but even within that weekend had an alarming drop-off? And then the box office completely fell off a cliff and it stumbled to it’s final tally of $870 million when it should’ve been a billion dollar movie? It’s seems like Suicide Squad might be following the same sobering pattern.

After having record-breaking days on Thursday and Friday, Suicide Squad rapidly dropped on Saturday. A whopping 40%. That’s actually a tad worse than Batman v Superman’s alarming 38% in a similar period. Suicide Squad was expected to take nearly $150 million based on the early numbers, now it’s expected to be more like $130, which is a pretty drastic change. Oh, it’ll still easily set the record for highest August opening, because the previous record-holder was Guardians of The Galaxy at around $95 Million, but if history repeats itself, Suicide Squad will drop off nearly 70% next weekend just like BvS and stumble to finish at what’s going to be respectable numbers for such a high-profile, high-budgeted film. There have already been reports that Suicide Squad needs to make at least $750 million to just break even, and this kind of drop off combined with the fact that’s it probably not opening in the increasingly crucial Chinese market makes that seem like a pretty impossible feat.

Next: Rumored List Of Deleted Suicide Squad Scenes

Well, beyond Suicide Squad, this also is a big question of what effect this might have on the future of DC films in general. After two generally disappointing movies, will crowds even show up for Wonder Woman & Justice League? The thing about Suicide Squad is it was a film that was pretty much done before Geoff Johns took over DC films, so future DC films may look drastically different than these first two. Suicide Squad is in theaters now, but will critics and audiences care? If this pattern continues, the DC film universe might just have to scrap everything and go back to the drawing board yet again.

h/t CBM