Suicide Squad rated 15 by BBFC

[Catwoman]

Good man.

[Silver Nemesis]

This can't be right:

Experts suggest "Suicide Squad" will be a hit, with Deadline Hollywood projecting an opening weekend gross of $95 million to $125 million. The film will have to rake in some serious box office receipts to cover its reported $250 million budget.

https://www.gobankingrates.com/personal-finance/suicide-squad-cast-paychecks-smith-net-worth-jared-leto-net-worth/

I really, really hope this is wrong. Wonder Woman has an estimated production cost of around $150 million, and that movie features Themyscira, WWI re-enactments and Amazon warriors riding into battle en masse. How could Warner Bros waste $100 million more on Suicide Squad?

WB needs to issue a statement detailing the real budget, because if this figure is accurate the film could be in for some serious trouble at the box office. If it's $250 million including p & a, then that's a different story. But if it really is $250 million for production costs alone...

[thecolorsblend]

IF this movie costs $250 million, I'm guessing most of it went to actors' salaries or something because this never looked like a $250 million production budget to me. It's got those gritty, basically practical effects going. In fact, I can't recall a single moment of the film so far that even includes CGI.

The alternative is $X production cost + $X marketing cost = $250 million, like you were saying. Even that I'd find hard to believe since a good chunk of the marketing stuff I've seen looks fairly inexpensive. If someone were to tell me this movie had a (relatively) modest marketing budget of $40 or $50 million, I could believe that.

I don't know everything (or even most things) but if the total cost of this sucker (including marketing) goes north of $200, either this movie is hiding a crapload of surprises, everybody involved with the movie walked away with $5 or $10 million salaries or else someone really sucks at budgeting.

Like, REALLY.

[The Dark Knight]

Well, whatevs folks. I'm all about the movie right now. I'm seeing it on Saturday, and I'm excited. To the point I won't do a feature focused on Leto's Joker, but just a general review which touches on everything. Who else is catching the movie this week/weekend?

[Silver Nemesis]

If someone were to tell me this movie had a (relatively) modest marketing budget of $40 or $50 million, I could believe that.

$40-50 million would be extremely low for a modern comic book film. I'd imagine Suicide Squad's marketing costs will be at least double that amount. Even Ant-Man's p & a was estimated to be over $100 million, and that was Marvel Studios' smallest budgeted film to date.

This article states Suicide Squad's net production budget is $175 million, which sounds a lot more reasonable:

Still, with a $175 million net production budget – far higher than the modest $58 million "Deadpool" cost – Ayer did have to make certain concessions to the bottom line.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-ca-mn-suicide-squad-comic-con-feature-20160719-snap-story.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

The "net production budget" bit reeks of studio accounting, kind of like how Sony downgraded Ghostsbusters' budget from $180 to $156 to $144 million. But regardless, it's a lot better than $250 million. As long as they don't go overboard on the marketing, WB's total expenditure should be under $300 million. Which means anything over $600 million at the box office should be a win.

In other news, the review embargo is scheduled to end on Tuesday, August 2 at 9:00 am PT/12:00 pm ET: http://attackofthefanboy.com/culture/heres-suicide-squad-review-embargo-lifted/

A few early points to consider regarding box office.

Pros:
+ It's tracking well on social media.
+ The majority of DC fans are stoked and presales already point to a strong opening weekend.
+ There aren't any other major hit movies out at the moment. It seems my earlier prediction about Star Trek Beyond underperforming was accurate – it dropped 60% in its second weekend. And Jason Bourne is unlikely to gross more than $25-30 million domestically next weekend. So there shouldn't be much competition.

Cons:
- The fact other recent blockbusters have underperformed shows 2016's trend for poor US box office is continuing. Deadpool and Cap 3 both proved immune to this, but X-Men: Apocalypse didn't. It could go either way for Suicide Squad.
- While comic book fans are hyped, I'm not seeing a massive amount of interest from general cinemagoers. A lot of people still feel burned from BvS, and my own experience talking to non-comic fans is that most of them don't know what this film is and certainly aren't hyped for it. It needs to bring in a wider audience than just DC fans, and that could be where the film stumbles.

[The Dark Knight]

And it's not directed by Snyder, so the reviews will be more kind. But anyway, I'm expecting SS to be a fun, edgy two hours worth of entertainment. A breezy ride. Which isn't a bad thing, even though I prefer the likes of BvS and MoS. A win for Suicide Squad is nonetheless a win for DC and the new universe. I think it can do good business. I also think the hunger for DC media is there. BvS did well at the box office despite all the fuss and meltdowns that happened. And it continues to do well on home video.

Bring on the squad.

[thecolorsblend]

"I don't like this movie because muh Marvel."

Ugh...

[The Dark Knight]

I'm seeing some groups blast it for being 'sexist' and 'hideously timed timed gun worship'.

Social justice warriors at it again. Yawn.