OK since we are talking budgets and box office let me brake some things down so bare with me. To those trying to downplay the success of this film by using the Budget agianst it. (Plenty of Marvel films have 150-200 Million budgets as well) Trust me WB is having a huge party over this. NOBODY even the biggest Box Office Experts had "Suicide Squad" breaking any records. WB just broke the record for most consecutive years over 1 Billion at the Domestic Box Office (17 Years 99-Present) First let me explain something about Movie Revenue, the whole (It needs to make 3x it's budget) isn't all the way true. Yes a film does have to make a the bare minunum DOUBLE it's budget before Studio can see anything. That's true. The reason the 3x's isn't fully true is because there are SEVERAL revenue streams for movie (Home Video DVD/Blu-ray, Streaming (Netflex, Hulu etc), International Gross, Television Rights, etc).
Also when a studio releases "Production Budget" most people think that doesn't include marketing. You are correct because studios don't inlcuding marketing dollars in the Budget because most of the time (Not all) the marketing money is already written off by production credits and rebates. Also a studio never wants the public to truely know how much they spent marketing a project. Only on Really huge blockbusters does the marketing money go past rebates. Rumors are Disney spent over 150 Milllion Markting "The Force Awakens" (Budget 150, Marketing 150). Fox spent 125 Million Marketing "Avatar".
"Suicide Squad" a year ago, tracking for this film was at about 65-70 Million. Most of that was based on Will's Star Power because Neither Jared (Never had a 100 Million grossing film) nor Margot (She's had a few but she's didn't drive the film and was a supporting character) are huge box office draws dispite playing legendary characters. The 175 Budget for Suicide Squad was definitely mostly Actors Salaries, Effects, Locations. Let's put this into context. "Star Trek" (185 M Budget) and "Bornue" (120 M Budget) both popular franchises barely cleared 60 Million. "X-men" (178 M Budget) coming off a well recieved "DOFP" came in at 65 Million. Even the "Ghostbusters" reboot cost over 150 Budget and that clearly ain't recouping came in 56 Opening Weekend. "Independence Day: R" cost 165 Million (41 Million Opening weekend) just as much as "Suicide Squad". "Suicide Squad" outperformed all of these titles, no way anyone can spin it as a flop.
But something happen between "Civil War" and "Suicide Squad". It was a very lackluster summer for movergoers. Way to many underperformaing blockbusters. All the sudden "Suicide Squad" became an event blockbuster that you would expect in May or even July. Even with Batman in a cameo and Joker all over the marketing, as well as Harley Quinn finally getting on the Big Screen, "Suicide Squad" is nowhere near a premier comic book title of other DC heroes or even Marvel. Tracking didn't start to uptick until about 2 weeks ago when fandango saw a huge spike in presales. Many box office sources that I know personally said that even WB is floored by those numbers as their inside tracking had it at about 80 Million at best. When pressed by the media they finally put out a number of about 110 Million (Once the fandango reports came in) so they were still unsure at the final hour.
Just as nobody saw "Guadians" breaking the record (Oh yeah Guadians had a 200 Million Budget by the way), Nobody thought this film could do it let alone break it by 40 million. It also had a very strong hold for Monday at about 13.5 Million. If "Guadians" made 330 Million and BatsVSupes made 330 Million than if "Suicide Squad" ends up beating both and possible "Deadpool" becoming the 2nd highest grossing comic book film domestically than I don't see how you can say this is anything but a huge success. Now yes if the Legs fall apart and lets say it tops out at about 250-260 then yes one could argue there is possibly bad word of mouth. The bottom line is DCEU is ahead of Marvel box office wise after their first few films:
(First 3 Films) Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2 = 1.4 Billion
(First 2 Films) Man of Steel, BatsVSupes = 1.5 Billion (After Suicide Squad they will be well pass 2 Billion after only 3 movies)
You could agrue yes they had to bring out the big dogs to get those numbers (Hulk was a big dog for Marvel that underperformed by the way) but the reality of the matter is you can't be bias and say Marvel did great out the gate (When they really didn't as Hulk and Iron Man 2 weren't that great) while saying DC didn't when clearly they are putting up the results. Critical Accliam is missing yes but I'm looking at the critics sideways when they give great reviews to average Marvel films while piling on and bashing DC films. The point is there is clearly a HUGE demand for DC comic characters. Marvel does not have the monopoly they've had over the last 4 years since "The Dark Knight Trilogy" ended. As long as "Wonder Woman" does well (It Will as Supergirl, Catwoman and Electra are it's only competition for female solo films and they all flopped) then you transistion to Justice League for the Holidays and DC wil have 5 Successful Films, 3 of which already broken records.
Now I will say this and after a long time thinking about it, Yes "BatsVSupes" should of done over a Billion and it's clear it fell just short because there were issues with the film that people couldn't just get behind. And that's fair. In no way am I saying all 3 films were flawless Classics but they also weren't "TRASH", "Worst Comic Book Movies Ever" as RT Critics would have you believe. (DareDevil has a higher score than SS and BvS, lol) "Man of Steel" IMO did everything it needed to do to reintroduce Superman to general audiences after that lackuster "Returns". "Suicide Squad" to me delievered and gave WB/DC a whole new blockbuster franchise out of left field. Overall I think DC needs to continue what they are doing. "Suicide Squad" is vastly different than anything I've seen from Marvel as far as giving us the Dark Comic Book Vibe (Sans Blade of course). As a fan of both DC and Marvel I want them to co-exsist but they can't when people aren't giving DC a fair shake because they are so afraid of Marvel having some competition.
.
*Sigh* I wasn't too impressed. I guess I was expecting him to be a big reveal instead of just there in a straight jacket. That was my only real expectation going in but he delivered when he was with Harley. But Batman's cameo felt off.
