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

4. It’s Somewhat Disconnected From The Rest Of The DCEU

The DCEU isn’t exactly the most well regarded franchise currently chugging away. Sure, it has its defenders, but the general consensus is that Man Of Steel was a major disappointment and Batman V Superman somehow managed to be worse. Releasing a new movie mere months after the latter isn’t an attractive prospect, but with Suicide Squad only having minimal overlap there was ample opportunity for Warner Bros. to forge out a new direction.

By not being Batman V Superman 1.5 (in the same way Captain America: Civil War was a pseudo Avengers sequel), Suicide Squad distanced itself from the previous duds and had less residual anti-hype. I’d bet there’s people who didn’t even realise there was a straight-up connect until Ben Affleck appeared.

It’s the reverse of Marvel, using a distance from the brand to help a movie’s chances, but given the deck DC’s playing with, it’s not a bad play.