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

6. A Largely Unknown Cast Of Characters...

The Suicide Squad
Warner Bros. Pictures

As Gunn's work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has already proved, having an unknown cast of characters isn't always a bad thing. Nobody knew who the Guardians Of The Galaxy were, but that first movie ended up being one of the highest-grossing hits of 2014.

For a second though, just imagine if it had flopped instead. Do you know what people would've said? "Guys, this was always going to fail - because who the hell cares about the Guardians Of The Galaxy?"

Putting C-tier characters in a C-tier property is always going to be a gamble, and in this case, it didn't pay off. Warner Bros marketed this movie like Suicide Squad is a massive IP that everybody loves, but in reality, we had one terrible movie back in 2016. And on top of that, nobody cares about Bloodsport, Polka-Dot Man, Rick Flag, and Ratcatcher. Were people actually excited to see Peacemaker? Or did all that hype exist within the movie-fan bubble?

Sure, those of us who saw the movie fell in love with all these characters (Polka-Dot Man and King Shark stole the show, and Bloodsport was a total badass). But as Paramount recently discovered with GI Joe and Snake Eyes, that bubble makes it seem like things are way more popular than they actually are.

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Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!