8 Reasons Suicide Squad Became A Box Office Success (Despite Being Terrible)

6. The Fan/Critic Divide Is Widening

The big thing working against Suicide Squad was that it’s not a good movie. Not by a long shot. It’ll wind up its cinema run with a 26% on Rotten Tomatoes, putting it worse than Batman V Superman (although that may be because the hype for this one, especially amongst film types, was higher).

But if there’s one thing that 2016’s taught is that, when it comes to superhero films, fans don’t care what the critics think. It was all propagated by Batman V Superman, with Warner Bros. carefully seeding claims the film was for the fans, not the critics into their junket and other press interviews, and, well, those fans ran with it; it’s turned up again with X-Men: Apocalypse, Warcraft and, most impactful, with Suicide Squad.

Over the past six months we’ve seen the trust in critical assessment of geek movies decrease, and so while critics rightfully slated Suicide Squad, many of the more obsessive audience members don’t care. And as that view spreads, more people aren’t going to listen.