8 Reasons Why The Suicide Squad Just Bombed At The Box-Office

Harley Quinn just isn't as popular as Warner Bros thinks she is...

By Danny Meegan /

James Gunn's The Suicide Squad is now playing in cinemas around the globe, and it's bloody fantastic. It's violent and crude and action-packed, but it's also full of heart, with tons of likeable characters. It's the perfect summer movie.

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But despite all that pre-release buzz, the glowing reviews, and the positive fan reaction, The Suicide Squad's opening weekend was anything but good news.

Despite expectations that it would easily surpass $30 million in the U.S., the movie just debuted with a lacklustre $26.5 million. For context, Fast 9 and Black Widow opened with $70 million and $80 million respectively, while Space Jam 2 and Jungle Cruise did $31 million and $35 million - so you can see why The Suicide Squad's tally is being viewed as a disappointment.

We're obviously living in a strange global time right now, but that's not the only factor at play here. Again, freakin' Jungle Cruise just made $35 million last weekend! So, the question becomes... how does a movie as good as The Suicide Squad make less than an utter abomination like Space Jam 2? Well, let's take a look.

8. The R-Rating

While it's been proven time and time again that R-rated comic-book movies can produce impressive box-office results (Joker, Logan, both Deadpool flicks), the fact that The Suicide Squad cut off younger cinemagoers obviously restricted its earnings potential.

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Not that the movie would've doubled or tripled its opening weekend gross if it had a more accessible rating. But over the course of a weeks-long theatrical run, those extra $5-$10 million chunks the movie could've earned from PG-13 audiences would start to add up.

It goes back to that discussion about business practices vs. artistic vision. James Gunn's The Suicide Squad is an R-rated movie through to its core - you can't just remove that element and expect the same terrific, critically-acclaimed result.

But with that rating in mind, it was perhaps a bit ill-advised to give Gunn a staggering $185 million to play with, especially when those aforementioned, successful R-rated comic-book movies all cost between $55 million (Joker) and $110 million (Deadpool 2), thus slightly mitigating the risk of cutting off that PG-13 demographic.

If The Suicide Squad had cost somewhere in the region of $100-$120 million to produce? Then that $26.5 million debut would've been viewed as a decent result.

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