Suicide Squad is arguably going to perform about as well as we could have hoped a Task Force X movie to play. Regarding actual grosses, it was indeed a live-action shot-in-the-arm to the summer box office that the theaters needed after a somewhat underwhelming mid-May to late-July period. The fact that
Suicide is (possibly) going to get close to
Batman v Superman is in itself an accomplishment even if you argue that Harley Quinn was the DC equivalent of Deadpool in terms of “fan favorite characters shiningbrightly on the big screen.”
The David Ayer film earned $43.77 million in its second weekend.
That’s a drop of 67.2% from its record-breaking $133.6m debut weekend.That’s better than the 69% drops of Elektra andX-Men Origins: Wolverine,the 69.7% drops of Jonah Hex and Hulk as well as the 70.7% drop of Hellboy II(against the opening weekend of The Dark Knight), and the 78% drop for Steel back in 1997. It’s just below the 68.2% drop for
Fantastic Four. But it is below the last three Memorial Day-released
X-Men movies (-66.9%, and -64.2%, and -65.3% in 2006, 2014, and 2016).
It’s the biggest “second weekend” in August, just ahead of
Guardians of the Galaxy‘s $42.1 million.If you’re wondering why I didn’t include
Captain America: Civil War‘s 74% Friday drop when discussing big comic book plunges yesterday, it was because I knew that we weren’t looking at a 74% Friday drop leading to a 59% weekend drop. The Marvel Cinematic Universe movies usually drop
55-60%on the second weekend. Be they released by Paramount/Viacom Inc., Universal, or Walt Disney, are remarkably consistent offerings, except for MCU movies (
The Avengers,
Iron Man,
Thor) that fall closer to 50% on weekend two.
Comparatively for DC Comics, we’ve had
Watchmen (-67.7% in weekend two),
Jonah Hex (69.7%),
Green Lantern (-66.1%),
The Dark Knight Rises (-61.4%),
Man of Steel (-67.9% using the full $128m opening weekend),
Batman v Superman (-69.1%), and now
Suicide Squad (-67.2%). That’s a very different kind of consistency, especially if you remove Chris Nolan’s Batman finale from the equation.
The DC movies are not playing like the MCU or a general audiences franchise. They are playing like Twilight Saga sequels. As long as they are budgeted with that expectation in mind, with a fan-fueled mega-opener followed by a quick fade, that’s okay.
There is a distinct (and enormous) fan base for these pictures, a fan base that fuels massive opening weekends but doesn’t seem to be expanding.
Again, part of that is the fact that, all due respect, the films aren’t as good as they should be. Part of that is frankly because they aren’t as big in terms of casual family viewing, which is part of what turns Civil War‘s 74% Friday drop into a 59% weekend drop. But again, with opening weekends well over $100 million each time out thus far and domestic totals over/under $300m, we can debate to what extent this is a problem.