I remember reading that Iron Man 2 was pretty rushed which makes allot of sense given its maybe the worst MCU movie besides Thor 2 IMO. Maybe that was Disneys lesson to give these movies the proper time.
There, fixed ;)
Personally I liked Thor 2 much more than 1. Thor 2 had more color, life, and Asgard. Thor 1, however, trundled around the New Mexico desert. Was ok, but honestly kinda dull.
On the good news side, WB has to be happy that the overnight take was a record-breaking $20 million.
[quote]
“Suicide Squad” has opened with a massive $20.5 million in Thursday night screenings in North America — setting a record for an August release and the 13th best preview showing ever.[/quote]
The estimate is that Suicide Squad needs $800 million to break even on its combined production and marketing budget.
Bad news for WB, good news for the Chinese.
$800 million to break even? How does that even happen?
The production budget was around $175 million, and the common wisdom to estimate for AAA tentpole films is to double the production budget to account for marketing. That gives us a total spend of $350 million. Since the studio gets roughly a third to half (depending on international exchange rates and distribution deals) of the box office ticket sales revenue, $800 million in box office would put it around $266 million to $400 million back to WB.
I’m missing something then - if $800 million would return $266 to $400 million to Warner Brothers, that’s not exactly breaking even is it?
Depending on where that lands I guess. $266m would be under expectations. $400m would be a bit of profit. Either way, it’s going to be a tough road to hit $800m.
Plus, with China out and returns likely to drop like a rock on the back of bad word of mouth, WB might actually wind up closer to the 50% figure (as early-week and non-Chinese ticket sales tend to contribute more to the studio, IIRC).
I mean, losing China also makes it harder to get anywhere near $800m, too, but ya know.
So I took the 13-year-old with me to see this tonight and I definitely fall in the 26% of Rotten Tomatoes reviewers who gave it a thumbs up.
Margot Robbie and Will Smith make the movie. Harley is just wonderfully psycho, and benefits from the better writing in a mixed-quality script. Viola Davis is a fairly decently threatening Amanda Waller, though I think Lorraine Toussaint or Alfre Woodard probably would have been stronger choices. Leto has a hard act to follow with Ledger, but does a good job, though certainly nothing to justify his supposed on-set behavior. (I’m not 100% sure those stories weren’t manufactured.)
Anyway, the pacing is good, and the kid and I actually really liked the origin/background story sequences at the beginning.
To me, there is one fatal flaw that really hurts the movie: Cara Delivigne was an absolutely terrible choice for Enchantress. Her acting as June Moone is flat, and her performance can’t overcome her silly costume when she’s in Enchantress mode. She plays a critical role in the film, and she’s also the weakest actor in the whole movie. (Though if Joel Kinnaman’s flat performance as Rick Flag is any indication, he’d be better off going back to Swedish cinema if he wants to stand out.)
I enjoyed the movie, but because of the fun ensemble work between the Squad members, not the actual storyline, which had a very disappointing surprise, a terrible bad guy, and for some reason, the big swirling trash pile hurricane from the last X-Men movie.
For a 13-year-old boy who’s a disturbingly big fan of the Joker, it’s a 10 out of 10.
For his 50-year-old dad who’s been a DC fan since the 70s, a 6.5 out of 10 that I don’t regret going to see. It certainly could have been better, but I had fun and loved Harley and Deadshot.
It’s certainly not Green Lantern- or Batman v Superman-level bad like the review scores would imply. It’s a fun ensemble flick. Next up they need to do a Harley Quinn/Poison Ivy movie.
Like!
When you approach investors for this sort of thing, you have to give an estimated return (this is in a percentage), and you have to show a history of making that return in previous ventures. It is really the bottom line in this sort of thing. If I give you $10-$20 million for 2-3 years+, I don’t want to just break even.
Saw this last night with my 17-year-old son, and I concur 100% with @Editer. This was nowhere near the disaster early reviews have suggested. I certainly feel as if I got my 13 bucks worth, and it was an entertaining couple hours at the cinema. Delivered pretty much exactly what I expected.
I thought Leto was great (it must be a real challenge to bring something fresh to such an iconic character, but he does that), Margot Robbie was note-perfect, and Will Smith was Will Smith.
I suspect the eventual Director’s Cut will be even better. There was some disjointed editing between the first and second acts that didn’t really work for me, but otherwise it was an enjoyable night out.
If you enjoyed Suicide Squad, then you will really enjoy the animated Suicide Squad movie, Batman: Assault on Arkham. It’s the superior Suicide Squad experience in most ways (arguably the live action movie has a better Harley.)
Saw it with my son last night, we generally liked it a fair amount. He liked it more than I, but I think it’s getting panned harder than it strictly needs to, which is kind of strange given I felt somewhat the same way about BvS. Both movies have some problems, but that doesn’t make them less enjoyable.
I loved Smith, he did a great job. I thought Robbie was great, and I generally liked the cast. I actually didn’t like Leto’s Joker though, it felt off, and it never felt like the Joker, just some mobster with a lot of money and resources and a flair for the dramatic. He needed to be a lot more chaotic, for one thing. Anyway, my boy thought he was good but didn’t like the laugh, while the laugh was fine for me (if a little forced) and I just didn’t like the character’s portrayal.
I did love any scene with the Bat, and the one with the Flash was great, so I hold out hope we’ll really dig JL.
I dug the Joker in spite of the vibe of his scenes (good lord that editing) but I can totally see him being the most divisive part of an already shit movie. And this was a SHIT movie. I really wonder what the original cut was gonna be like, because holy fuck how many times does a character have to bookend a scene by stating aloud exactly what the stupid audience must be thinking? (like 25 times.)
WB is wasting the DC licence. I think an intervention is in order.
Man, I did not like this. Margot Robbie was fine as Harley and Viola Davis was good as Waller. That’s really all the positive I have for this movie.
The Enchantress was awful and Flag, Croc, Katana, and Diablo were just going through the motions. Will Smith was just Will Smith.
The plot was terrible. This is the crew you assemble to guard against Superman-level threats? Ludicrous. And Waller just had the magic MacGuffin laying around at her pad? Nice plot scaffolding guys. Then it all ends in another CG garbage fest complete with swirling portal and giant CG monster. The disjointed presentation makes me think there’s another hour of movie somewhere on the editing floor.
And oh my Lord the music cues. So cliche. Every single one. Not an original track in the lot of them.
Regarding Jared Leto’s Joker, I liked it for all five minutes total we get of it. It was kind of cool to see a thug-tryhard version of that character, but I don’t know if it would work for extended periods. I’m not sure how DC/WB is going to be able to use that Joker as a standalone villain in a Batman movie, but it will be fun to see every Joker purist lose their minds.
Thumbs down.
I won’t disagree with that. After all Marvel is the one with balls giving Shane Black et al their gigs, when most of them had no track record directing CGI heavy movies, so there must be a bit hand holding from Marvel there.
Anyway, about this Suicide Squad thing, I think I can wait for it to come out in retail, ifvI can be bothered at all.
Technically, it’s not a license. WB owns DC so no one (external) is going to be intervening. They’re going have to come to the realization themselves.