Suicide Squad

[HaemishM]

I think that Snyder only having Exec producer credits on this thing and David McFuckstick Goyer not being allowed anywhere near this automatically gives me more hope for it. What's funny is I think this story works better for a Snyder-esque take than Superman, and grimdark is right for it. Though the addition of some lighter, more fun elements based on the droning level of drab in the DC Cinematic Universe is welcome.

[Ironwood]

Man, if we could hook up a generator for the stupid hope on these boards, we could power an Arc Reactor.

[Khaldun]

I feel pretty confident that I can read some tea leaves of certain kinds, even if I also get unrealistically hopeful that the better ideas I have about where to take a story might actually be in the cards when I know full well that a showrunner or director has no history of good story ideas.

So, for example, I was pretty sure that the early signs of Guardians of the Galaxy being good were real, because: a) the source material is good; b) James Gunn; c) Marvel had already shown a pretty deft touch.

I'm equally sure that rumors of hurried reshoots on a major scale are a bad sign, whether or not Goyer and Snyder have gotten within 100 feet of Suicide Squad during its production. Just like I'm sure that all the directors of the upcoming DC stuff (including Snyder!) saying that the *next* DC films will be "more fun" is the equivalent of a corporate panic attack. There is a WB boardroom somewhere right now where grown men are struggling to keep from peeing their pants. WB had a terrible box office year last year, and their revenue model is entirely built around making mass-market global giant blockbusters--they don't do mid-range films that make modest profits or that perform well with specific demographics. I am very sure that they have Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad down on the revenue projection sheets as making the kind of money that will make up for a bad year.

[HaemishM]

David Ayers is writing/directing Suicide Squad. He was the screenwriter on Training Day (good movie), as well as writer/director on Fury (which I haven't seen but heard was decent). I have more faith in him than Mr. Sucker Punch and Mr. Blade Trinity.

[NowhereMan]

I'm a little concerned that apparently the trailer was designed to really sell a different movie to the one WB made (it had literally all the jokes) and that their response was to start doing massive reshoots and redoing character moments to make them bigger when that got really positive responses. It reads to me a lot like someone at WB/DC was pushing against the grimdark stuff and got the go ahead to throw up a trial balloon with the trailer. When that proved popular it justified reshoots and redoing the movies.

On the one hand it's positive in that there are clearly some people at WB who understand the reason for the lack of success. On the other it's the kind of movie making by committee and remashing that rarely results in a good product. You can achieve a lot with good editors, I don't know if WB's output thus far justifies faith in theirs. I'm fully expecting a very mediocre movie with a few good moments that feels a bit disjointed rather than a dark and characterless actionfest. Hopefully WB will see that as a sign that their movies were improved by having some decent character moments rather than as something that failed because of the character stuff.

[Rendakor]

I wonder if the other influence for "more comedy" is the surprising success of Deadpool.

[HaemishM]

I wonder if the other influence for "more comedy" is the surprising success of Deadpool.

I'm absolutely certain it's more of this than the critics' reactions to BVS. WB sees the money made and thinks mimicry is the sincerest form of profit-making.

[Furiously]

I'd settle for a Harley Quinn/Poison Ivy deadpool knockoff movie...

[Rendakor]

I wonder if the other influence for "more comedy" is the surprising success of Deadpool.

I'm absolutely certain it's more of this than the critics' reactions to BVS. WB sees the money made and thinks mimicry is the sincerest form of profit-making.

That was my thought as well; BVS is getting panned by critics but it still made more than any of Marvel's movies so they're obviously doing nothing wrong. They will learn no lessons from BVS.

[Evildrider]

I wonder if the other influence for "more comedy" is the surprising success of Deadpool.

I'm absolutely certain it's more of this than the critics' reactions to BVS. WB sees the money made and thinks mimicry is the sincerest form of profit-making.

That was my thought as well; BVS is getting panned by critics but it still made more than any of Marvel's movies so they're obviously doing nothing wrong. They will learn no lessons from BVS.

It's not just critics either.  Fans of the movie even complain about it.  I mean the only moment of levity, if you can call it that, is the:

[Khaldun]

BvS is only ahead of Marvel films like Thor and Ant-Man, not Iron Man 1,2,3 or Avengers. BvS is in the middle of a huge 2nd weekend dropoff that might put its profitability at risk. (Making a big take doesn't help if you spend almost as much to make and market it.) WB had this pencilled in to make Avengers-like money, I am sure. Given the dropoff this weekend, it's not going to get anywhere near that--I would guess it's going to cume somewhere around $750 million. 

I guarantee that while WB execs are probably too stupid to learn the right lessons, they're worried and panicky right now.

[MahrinSkel]

The falloff is huge, they're already trying to spin it with how the falloff for Furious 7 or Twilight Breaking Dawn 2 was worse, but those were hugely anticipated franchise-closing films that opened on insane numbers of screens, and were always expected to fall off fast. In comparison, even though both Avengers movies had half the opening weekend, they had bigger *third* weeks than BvS is having for a second, and didn't even go to second-run discount theaters for 4 months (both grossed $1.4-1.5B in the end). Anybody here want to predict when BvS shows up in the dollar theater?

They will probably manage to make money on this just from the way they 'bought their gross' for opening weekend. But they have got to be shitting bricks over how this one wasn't supposed to just pay for itself, but make enough profit to pay for the whole string they have planned. And it's not going to do that.

--Dave

[Lakov_Sanite]

It's never a question of will it make money, things just don't bomb anymore.  It's really about did this make ENOUGH money to satisfy all the effort because there is just so much work put into this sort of production. Maybe six more shitty Kevin Hart movies might be better than this headache.

[HaemishM]

BvS is in the middle of a huge 2nd weekend dropoff that might put its profitability at risk.

OUCH.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice takes a massive tumble compared to its opening day last weekend with an estimated $15.35 million Friday. That's an 81% drop from its opening day last Friday, which did include $27.7 million from Thursday previews, but even excluding those numbers you're looking at a 71.5% drop. Rival studios peg the film's second weekend dropping as much as 70%, resulting in a three day weekend around $50 million.

Meanwhile, internationally the film brought in $19.2 million on Friday, bringing its international cume to $363.4 million for a worldwide total of $587.8 million.

That is a serious kick in the chao sack.

[Evildrider]

Don't worry it's just cuz of all the DC haters and superhero saturation, it doesn't mean its a bad film!

[Margalis]

I'm a little concerned that apparently the trailer was designed to really sell a different movie to the one WB made...

This was my assumption. A lot of the feel of the trailer came from the music, which is a choice made by whoever put the trailer together, not by whoever actually made the movie. It's hard to say exactly why, but the trailer always came across to me as a collection of the wackiest scenes to make it look like something it wasn't. Maybe the way the trailer is cut.

Watch it again and imagine grimdark music - the only character-centric or wacky parts are the Harley parts. Pretty much everything else is roided up dudes screaming and shooting and such. And a lot of the lighter bits are ADR and voiceover.

[Sir T]

I would also guess that there are going to be scenes of the Joker's violently abusive relationship to Harley that are going to suddenly wind up on the cutting room floor.

[Lakov_Sanite]

I would also guess that there are going to be scenes of the Joker's violently abusive relationship to Harley that are going to suddenly wind up on the cutting room floor.

Replace Leto in every scene with a cgi Ceasar Romero and bam, instant tone shift for them. It's a win win.

[Khaldun]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QXKzpX5A-I

[HaemishM]

New Suicide Squad Trailer

Apparently debuted at the MTV Movie Awards - MTV still does awards shows? Does anyone even watch MTV?

Anyway, this already looks 10 times better than BVS.

[Merusk]

First comment on that link is, "Idiotic idea to reshoot to make "funny." Dark was the way to go."

I want to know what world that guy lives in. Probably one where BvS didn't have an 70% 2nd week drop-off and wasn't lagging behind Ironman 3 by 100 million at day 17.

[HaemishM]

If BVS had not been a dreary, depressive, brooding mess, he'd likely have been correct. If anything should have been dark and brooding, Suicide Squad would have been it. It at least would have made more sense. Now that it's obvious that super hero movies really should at the very least be FUN or have some FUN elements amongst all the seriousbizness, he's ass wrong and probably works for Zak Snyder.

[MediumHigh]

Suicide Squad should be "dark" but there is a difference between dark and emo. And BVS was pretty damn emo. Very few cringe moments or man that's fucked up, a lot of watching characters mope and whine and live in their own head space to the inevitable conclusion that suicide would be a great idea. Nothing dark about that.

Also they have like an hour and a half worth of movie to be better than this episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnUohGDIzog

[luckton]

I see their marketing department is a big fan of the Wayne's World soundtrack. 

[Merusk]

Oh, and finally a Suicide Squad trailer on the big screen. That looks fun.

The trailers keep making it look like fun, but I'm still believe we're going to see the trainwreck ending to this little roller-coaster.

[Evildrider]

Oh, and finally a Suicide Squad trailer on the big screen. That looks fun.

The trailers keep making it look like fun, but I'm still believe we're going to see the trainwreck ending to this little roller-coaster.

Well rumor still is that they did some deep reshoots.  It wouldn't surprise me if Geoff Johns had a hand in lightening up the movie.  However then you have Snyder making idiotic comments and you realize it's all a false glimmer of hope.

[Abagadro]

I'll go see it just for Margot Robbie. She makes me tingly in my nethers.

[Furiously]

I'll go see it just for Margot Robbie. She makes me tingly in my nethers.

Most likely the same. That being said, I think Will Smith is going to have to bust his acting chops to make this decent. Or just go full Fresh Prince. I mean - it worked for Deadpool right?

[Khaldun]

I like Colbert's joke about the film, that the international title would be "Mopey Avengers Go to Hot Topic".

[Evildrider]

What's even funnier is they are having a Suicide Squad promotion with Hot Topic selling merchandise from the film.

[Khaldun]

 

[01101010]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/box-office-suicide-squad-tracking-911029

If early tracking is any indication, the Warner Bros. and DC superhero movie could open to an enormous $125 million in its North American debut when unfurling over the Aug. 5-7 weekend.

I almost fell off my desk chair from my eyes rolling so hard. So now we are into predicting movie box office takes.

[HaemishM]

The Hollywood Reporter has to generate clicks somehow.

[Velorath]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/box-office-suicide-squad-tracking-911029

If early tracking is any indication, the Warner Bros. and DC superhero movie could open to an enormous $125 million in its North American debut when unfurling over the Aug. 5-7 weekend.

I almost fell off my desk chair from my eyes rolling so hard. So now we are into predicting movie box office takes.

It's a pretty common practice, particularly for people who have access to tracking data.

[Khaldun]

I can see it simply because this summer feels uncommonly empty. There's really nothing with legs so far, and weekends abound (like this one) where it feels like there's nothing to see. So it's probably reasonable on that grounds alone to think it will open huge even if it sucks because there's nothing the fuck else out there, people are bored, etcetera.