Gatsby77

Required viewing for Brie Larson: 1) Scott Pilgrim vs. the World 2) The League, Season 3, Episodes 3-4 (it's on Netflix - she's "The Au Pair") 3) Room - her Academy Award-winning role, deservedly so

At $161.8 million domestic for its first five days, Suicide Squad has already surpassed X-Men: Apocalypse's $155-some million entire domestic total (!)

My boy Scott Mendelson now gives it decent odds at breaking $300 million domestic. http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2016/08/09/box-office-suicide-squad-earns-13-million-monday-for-146m-cume/#7618be2d5c4e I don't see it, think it will fade quickly enough that it falls just short of that. Specifically, I think it will play a la the final two Twilight movies, which both opened similarly, then suffered massive 2nd & 3rd week drop-offs, ultimately ending at between $281-$291 million domestic.

What happened to Cage? Didn't we see on-set photos of him filming like 7-8 months ago? Has that been pushed back until after Iron Fist & Defenders too? Or is it set for later this year? (as in, are the two series for 2016 Daredevil season 2 (released) and Cage (to be released soon))?

This goes to exactly why I think we'll see a bigger 2nd-weekend drop-off than BvS's 69.1% -- kids being out of school will burn off the extra demand throughout this week.

Also, I will give SS credit on two fronts: 1) Casting Gibiatti from The League as the main prison guard, and 2) In the bar, when Rick Flag says they're free to "just leave," Boomerang is gone instantly -- just bolts

Something gave that away... It has to be a Public Relations thing. Not at all. You emphasized BvS was the worst of the DC; my PR-honed eagle eyes simply pointed out it was in fact the worst of DC, Marvel, and Fox combined

Yeah - I didn't finish it. Stopped after episode 5. Cool concept, but just not my cuppa' tea

Well, since you brought it up... It will be interesting to see where Suicide Squad lands for second weekend results compared to the modern DC and Marvel crop of films. Marvel best (weekend) - Thor Marvel worst (weekend) - Captain America: The First Avengers Fox best (weekend) - X-Men: First Class Fox worst (weekend) - X-Men: Apocalypse DC best (weekend) - Batman Begins DC worst (weekend) - Batman v Superman So...I'm not the best at reading comprehension, but what I got from that chart is that Batman v. Superman had the largest % drop of all 24 recent superhero movies tracked. I'm betting that Suicide Squad beats that record: - worse reviewed - lesser known characters (thus, weaker brand awareness) - still summer break, so lots of kids will see it this week, lessening the weekend demand - will have fewer repeat viewings - only medium box office competition

Not an anomaly. Saturday was down 40%. Sunday was down another 22% from that. I doubt will see a full 70% drop-off next weekend but it's definitely looking like it'll be in the 60%s. No blockbusters due next weekend, but 2 solid mid-range releases. Sausage Party's the bigger threat, as it's targeting the same demo as SS. Pete's Dragon (3,400 screens) Sausage Party (2,800)

For the Warner's executive comment above, there's no need to spin a movie that bests the prior August opening weekend by more than 30%. But consider that it opened just shy of $3 million ahead of Deadpool despite being on nearly 20% more screens (SS actually opened on about 2 dozen more screens than did Batman v. Superman!). Still - hard numbers are there - as of right now, it's doing better than Deadpool.

a) I forgot Ryan Reynolds was in this movie. _Awesome_ intro to Wade when he singlehandedly takes out the bodyguards with his swords and then is like. "Okay! You can come in. People are dead!" b) Channing Tatum's from Alabama. I'm fairly certain he could do a decent accent. Also, he's been learning Creole French specifically for this role for at least the past year.

Would I be a heretic if I said I didn't think Tyler Kitsch's portrayal of Gambit was that bad? His accent needed work but the attitude & demeanor were spot-on, esp. in an otherwise- movie. The _only_ things that film got right were Gambit & Sabretooth.

Actually, no. The same source noting the $175 million budget has said that includes a single $10 million for reshoots. It's the absurd (although incredibly effective) marketing budget that will affect SS's long-run profitability.

Is that real? Love to finally see the Marvel Netflix folks get their due on the big screen.

Awesome! Thanks much.

"Box office success" seems pretty clear from that i09 article: $750 million worldwide to break even. Let's be generous and call it $700 million. Which it still won't come close to hitting.

DC's proven it could work though - with the Nolan trilogy. And Marvel proved villains could work with Deadpool, while making an A-list blockbuster over an off-beat team that no one's heard of could work with Guardians. And I don't see Marvel films as necessarily simple -- Winter Soldier worked as well as it did because it was primarily a spy thriller that just happened to be grafted onto a superhero movie (just as The Dark Knight was a decent crime thriller that happened to take place with some Batman characters). There's room for all kinds of these comic book movies in the theaters: Blade 2, Ant-Man and Big Hero Six alongside such epics as The Avengers. But we as comic fans need to be honest about the good vs. the bad, and keep rewarding the highest quality efforts. Otherwise, superhero fatigue will accelerate and we'll see the well dry up entirely that much sooner as the general public turns their back on the entire genre and Hollywood as a whole moves on to the next big thing. We've already seen (at least officially) both JLA and Infinity War pull back from two movies to one; it'd be a shame if a week first-month's showing of Suicide Squad killed any chance of a (lower-budgeted, better-written) sequel.

Also, forgive my ignorance, but is the current version of Deadshot black? I know in his original appearance in Batman # 59 he was white and the dude who plays him on Arrow is white. So...no angry fanboy backlash over changing his race a la Nick Fury?

Geoff Johns was credited as an executive producer on Suicide Squad. Anyone know the actual extent of his involvement?

Okay, so...saw it this afternoon. Mild spolers ahead (mostly tagged). It was fine. Mediocre, like Thor 2 or X-Men 3. Better than Ghost Rider and Jonah Hex, and it was far less offensive than BvS (in terms of missed opportunities, because the stakes here were far lower). But it was a huge missed opportunity, a la Spider-Man 3. I Loved: - Amanda Waller (although Viola Davis is always amazing -- i.e., How to Get Away With Murder) - Will Smith, and Deadshot's characterization - The first 1/2 hour (rock solid up until the second scene w/ the Enchantress) - Diablo's characterization - Boomerang's characterization (least annoyed I've ever been by Jai Courtney, save Jack Reacher) - Katana - Mid-credits' sequence I Hated - The villains (Tia Carrere did the same thing so much better in Kull) - The zombie people (seriously - straight out of the House of the Dead 2 video game) - The constant music (some good song choices and riffs, but ugh...) - The entire last 45 minutes. - Was Scott Eastwood even in this? So much for my "he must be Deathstroke" theory. Didn't even see him. Specific Stupid mess: How does Deadshot's daughter prevent him from killing ? I mean, we _literally_ just saw him kill a guy with a bank shot, and he can't manage a similar one at point blank? Esp. when we later see that killing him is now his most fervent wish?? - When they're in the bar, why does Harley go check the mirror to see , when hers alone had already been *and she knew it* just two scenes earlier? - What was up with Killer Croc gratuitously speaking in ebonics? Great character up until the start of the underwater scene, and then he suddenly becomes as stupidly racist as JarJar Binks. WTF? - While I enjoyed El Diablo's monologue in the bar, folks in my theater found it so corny they started laughing toward the end. Overall, it was just.... Maybe two stars, but def. not Catwoman bad. Wish I'd had a 3rd beer before going in. It's just frustrating, cuz it could have been great, as we saw with the likes of - Guardians of the Galaxy (motley crew of unknown comic characters) - Deadpool (that, with its hard R rating, at least had the courage of its convictions) - Any of the last three Mission: Impossible movies So in the end we just get disposable entertainment, fun for a slow summer's day, but ultimately forgettable, a la X-Men Apocalypse or Jack Ryan. Also, while Margot Robbie was certainly fun to look at and did a decent job, she didn't do crazy even as well as Mia Sara did as Harley 12 years ago in the otherwise-god awful Birds of Prey. Seriously - Mia Sara's portrayal of Quinzel (and, in the last episode, Harley Quinn) had just the right touch of truly scary psycho. Not Robbie's fault this time, so much as the writer's (and maybe the PG-13 rating) but could have been _so_ much better.

Sounds like the "Con Air" point I made 10-15 pages back in the thread. It's actually a clever marketing strategy that went on towards the end of some last minute fireworks before the summer winds down. You see these critic proof summer hits from time to time (Congo, The Mummy Returns, etc) that people seem to enjoy regardless of narrative quality and critical bashing. The Mummy Returns was awesome... Only for Rachel Weisz's Evie character. I've always been somewhat infatuated with her (even as the damsel in Chain Reaction.). #beautifulcreatures #bournelegacy #consta... I forget. Of course #consta...ntlywatchingmoviesjustforrachelweisz But true. Ahh... but worth it I was about to say she'd have made an excellent choice for Enchantress in SS... seeing as they went for a Brit... but then realised she's possibly outside of the "target age range" Just finished the new release The Lobster. I have no idea what I watched, but it had Rachel in it. She's still got it. #reallifebondgirl Or the scene where she seduces Ray Fiennes toward the beginning of The Constant Gardener. Day-um...

Or...can't we just blame it on the movie being not good? I haven't seen the Saturday viewing stats yet for the Olympics, but Friday night (for the opening ceremonies) was apparently the worst in the U.S. since 2004, and down 35% since London in 2012. If Suicide Squad does just $130 million this weekend (still an August opening record by a large margin), it'll be a stretch to reach $300 million domestic. At least it's still tracking to do better than X-Men Apocalypse overall...

Fair. Also, Wanted - It was far better than it deserved and had a more interesting plot / villain than it needed to.

But why can't it be good? Like Superman Superman 2 Batman Batman Returns Blade Spider-Man Blade 2 Spider-Man 2 Batman Begins Iron Man The Dark Knight The Dark Knight Rises The Road to Perdition A History of Violence The Avengers The Winter Soldier Civil War Ghost World Hellboy Hellboy 2 X-Men X-Men 2 X-Men: First Class Days of Future Past Ghost in the Shell Men in Black We should be allowed to complain about bad comic movies (for me, especially Spider-Man 3, Ghost Rider, Superman v. Batman, and Jonah Hex) precisely _because_ we've seen so many done so very very well. It's not that hard to do. And to hide behind "it's just a comic book movie" or "we should just count ourselves lucky to see these characters brought to screen at all" is a tired cop-out of an excuse. I'll even defend Watchmen. That movie didn't fail commercially because it was bad; it failed because the subject matter just didn't resonate with the public at large. For fans of the comic, it was a superb adaptation that actually improved on the source material (by excising the ridiculous squid). Heck, if Netflix can prove a Daredevil TV show could work and Disney can knock it out of the park with flippin' Guardians of the Galaxy, it shouldn't be that hard for DC to kill it with its shared universe.