Gatsby77

Marvel's first 3 movies were (along with domestic box office): Iron Man $318 million Incredible Hulk $134 million Iron Man 2 $312 million How were any of them juggernauts? Iron Man was indeed a blockbuster. It made that $318 million domestic on a $140 million budget. To match it with its reported $175 million budget (low by today's superhero tentpole standards) Suicide Squad will have to make $397.50 million domestic. Given the critical reviews thus far, I'd wager that's incredibly unlikely. Batman v. Superman made only $330.4 million domestic, for instance. While Deadpool, which cost more than $120 million _less_ to produce than Suicide Squad and was a hit with critics _and_ the public, only made $363 million domestic. Does anyone here, in this mecca of hardcore comic geeks, honestly believe (as of today) that Suicide Squad will out-gross Deadpool domestically? So, now we are comparing Suicide Squad to the one superhero movie that has been an outlier? If we compared the Marvel movies to Deadpool, all of Marvel's movies did worse too, because Deadpool's cost to revenue is incredible for a superhero movie. No - we're comparing Suicide Squad to Iron Man 1, since RJRJR included it among his claim that the early Marvel movies weren't juggernauts. I appreciate that he's since responded and walked that back a tad, but my point was: For SS to even equal Iron Man, it would have to do $397 million. Fat chance, given that neither BvS nor Deadpool came anywhere close to that.

Marvel's first 3 movies were (along with domestic box office): Iron Man $318 million Incredible Hulk $134 million Iron Man 2 $312 million How were any of them juggernauts? Iron Man was indeed a blockbuster. It made that $318 million domestic on a $140 million budget. To match it with its reported $175 million budget (low by today's superhero tentpole standards) Suicide Squad will have to make $397.50 million domestic. Given the critical reviews thus far, I'd wager that's incredibly unlikely. Batman v. Superman made only $330.4 million domestic, for instance. While Deadpool, which cost more than $120 million _less_ to produce than Suicide Squad and was a hit with critics _and_ the public, only made $363 million domestic. Does anyone here, in this mecca of hardcore comic geeks, honestly believe (as of today) that Suicide Squad will out-gross Deadpool domestically?

Choice critics quotes (and yes - I'm still seeing it tomorrow): "Suicide Squad amounts to an all-out attack on the whole idea of entertainment." - Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal "The closest Suicide Squad comes to the masterworks of Christopher Nolan is that, like Memento, it suffers from instant amnesia." -- Amy Nicolson, MTV "It wants so desperately to be subversive and irreverent in the manner of Fight Club or, more likely, Deadpool. And yet the most shocking thing about it is how risk-averse it turns out to be." - Chris Klimek, NPR "It's like looking forward to Christmas all year and then waking up on the big day to find Santa Claus sprawled out dead under your tree." - Kurt Loder, Reason Online "Suicide Squad is the most miserable time I've had at the movies in my life." - Calum Marsh, National Post "If you know someone you really can't stand - not someone you dislike, not someone who rubs you the wrong way, but someone you really loathe and detest - send that person a ticket for "Suicide Squad." - Mike LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle Here's hoping it hits the $140 million opening weekend, 'cuz next weekend's going to be brutal.

Are we believing the reports of an all-in $275 million budget for Suicide Squad? Per IGN & Hollywood reporter it was ~$175 million production (including $10 million in re-shoots) & $100 million in marketing & advertising. Even with Will Smith reportedly being paid $20 million for his role, that seems high for a C-list group of superheroes whose schtick is "we're bad guys." Like, I would have expected closer to $130 million for production and $50 million for marketing & advertising.

Rotten Tomatoes now has it tracking nearly identically with Green Lantern: Suicide Squad 26% positive out of 216 reviews counted Average rating of 4.7 / 10 Green Lantern 26% positive out of 226 reviews counted Average rating of 4.6 / 10

He also literally said that Suicide Squad was worse than Green Lantern, Fantastic Four, and Jonah Hex.

Looks like it made $20.5 million from Thursday night screenings alone. Dang...

I love Kevin Smith. - He's one of us - As someone who broke through as an independent filmmaker with Clerks, he's living the dream - He essentially discovered Ben Affleck - The first 10 years of his output was great (esp. Chasing Amy & Dogma) But...umm...the dude named his _kid_ after Harley Quinn. I trust his judgment about her first live-action appearance about as much as I trust Harry Knowles' view of any superhero film.

So, at a Tomatometer of 27%, it's now tied with Batman v. Superman, but ahead of Green Lantern (at 26%). Still on track for a record-breaking weekend, though, as it's got the largest ever number of screens for an August opening.

Bad reviews won't affect opening weekend -- the fans will show up to this no matter what. The bad reviews will, however, affect the 2nd weekend drop-off.

So...apparently the Joker's barely in the film & the real villain is the Enchantress and her CGI brother Lava-man? Seriously? Can't wait until tonight when a boardie who has seen it can post a review...

Yeah - don't misunderstand. I'm far from "excited." And I _love_ David Ayer -- Training Day and End of Watch were stone-cold masterpieces. But it's as a comic fan that I had really high hopes for this film, especially after the misfire that was BvS. Instead, given these reviews, I'll relegate it to a Sunday matinee, with my buddy & me taking it in the same way we saw Ghost Rider, Jonah Hex and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter: Mel-Gibson-drunk

And my boy Scott Mendelson at Forbes pulled the nuclear option with his title alone: 'Suicide Squad' Review: Worse Than 'Green Lantern,' Worse Than 'Fantastic Four' The choice quote: "Once upon a time I bent over backward to be fair to Green Lantern, yet now I am nostalgic for what that film’s A-to-B-to-C competence. As much as everyone talked about Zack Snyder as the great devil holding back the DC Comics universe, Suicide Squad is noticeably inferior to Man of Steel and Batman v Superman. It’s (perhaps by default) probably the worst “big” DC Comics live-action movie since Catwoman. Even Jonah Hex, warts and all, was at least about something, as its “fear of a militarized Tea Party” subtext turned out to be sadly prescient." http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2016/08/03/suicide-squad-review-worse-than-green-lantern-worse-than-fantastic-four/#3bbe12de4d73

Among top critics the rank is even worse: 7 positive out of 29 so far (or 24% positive). The major positive outliers: USA Today & Entertainment Weekly. Even The Onion hated it: "Even the idea of nihilist camaraderie, which should come naturally with the Peckinpah-by-way-of-post-Crisis-DC premise, feels like a load of hooey; the characters are often too busy posing to exchange more than a few words at a time."

Point of order: Iron Man 3 was awesome. First, it was far better than Iron Man 2 / Thor 2 / Hulk / Incredible Hulk And yeah - while the ending was weak, what with Gwyneth Paltrow turning into some sort of extremis-infected immortal Ironwoman and all but... the fact that Shane Black trolled comic book nerds everywhere with the Mandarin reveal... _ruled_. I'm glad it grossed its $1.2 billion.

Can we stop it with the RT or anti-DC superhero movie conspiracy theories already? Exactly. I think that given the early reviews, it's probably unlikely that Suicide is either as good as, or will do nearly as well commercially as, Deadpool - its closest comparable (and, more than a little, inspiration). But a primary driver of any commercial failure is likely to be audience fatigue. How many superhero movies have we seen this year alone? And how many (non-animated) would-be blockbusters that opened respectably & then dropped like a stone? Independence Day Warcraft (ok - this was an actual bomb) Tarzan Star Trek I even predict Jason Bourne will see a 58-60% drop-off this weekend. Why? I saw it - it was decent, but not great. Just serviceable, more of the same from the franchise, like the last (mediocre) Bond film. It was a fun use of 2 hours but will be gone from theaters in a month & that's ok. But with the weight of the "DCEU" on its shoulders, Suicide Squad doesn't have the runway to be merely good, a la Ant-Man. It needs to be a blockbuster, and that's not fair to it -- especially so now that it looks like that may not happen.

This is the most interesting review I've seen so far. Devin Faraci goes into great detail in trashing the film but ultimately gives it a positive review for Rotten Tomatoes on the strength of four of the actors' performances (hint: Jared Leto's was not one of them). http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2016/08/02/suicide-squad-is-a-huge-mess

I know I'm not the sharpest needle in the haystack but couldn't "Unite the Seven?" just refer to the oceans -- like, the seven seas? Because, you know...Aquaman? Unless they're pulling a hidden Matt-Damon-in-Interstellar thing on us, other logical options could be Willem Dafoe as Hal Jordan or Karl Farrer, whose role is currently listed as "co-pilot."

_So_ excited for this movie now!

1) I'm concerned about this trailer - looks too frenetic, tonally dissonant. Like...individual scenes could be awesome, but I have the sinking feeling it will end up being far less than the sum of its parts -- and much less than it could have been. 2) I still think Eastwood's playing Slade Wilson. And I'm excited for that -- even if it's just a post-credits sequence debuting him as Deathstroke.

Eh... I think both Sean Patrick Flannery and River Phoenix killed it as young Indiana Jones. More importantly, I have faith in Lord & Miller.

Hah - well, I managed to get through Terminator Genisys in just two sittings and three beers so far this weekend. Although I didn't have the fortitude to try Transformers: Age of Extinction yet. I mean, is Trank's FF really worse than Jonah Hex and Ghost Rider: Spirits of Vengeance?

It's out on Redbox near me. Worth the $.99 and 2 hours of my time?

And don't forget that Manganiello (who basically got his start in a superhero movie -- he was Flash Thompson in Spider-Man) came really close to being cast as Deathstroke in Suicide Squad. Now that he wasn't -- all signs point to Scott Eastwood having snagged that role.

I had hope for this film back when Bradley Cooper was attached. But even given someone of his star power, the best comp / best case scenario I can think of is Max Payne, starring Mark Wahlberg, and that one barely made its budget back domestically ($40 million or so on a $35 million budget, with a total international haul around $85 million). No one's clamoring for a fifth Crow movie, just like no one was clamoring for Crow 2, 3 or 4.