The Suicide Squad: HBO Max's Most Successful DC Release, Says ...

According to director James Gunn, The Suicide Squad is the best-performing DC film on streaming. The film, which is a follow-up to the similarly titled Suicide Squad from 2016, provides a largely new team of DC villains (alongside Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn) to wreak havoc while on an important mission on the island nation of Corto Maltese. The star-studded cast also includes Idris Elba as Bloodsport, Sylvester Stallone as King Shark, Peter Capaldi as Thinker, John Cena as Peacemaker, and Joel Kinnaman returning as Colonel Rick Flag.

The Suicide Squad was released in theaters and simultaneously on HBO Max on August 6, 2021, during a time that pandemic-era audiences were especially slow to return to theaters for anything other than Marvel movies. Although HBO Max isn't transparent about their streaming numbers, The Suicide Squad underperformed at the box office and was generally considered to be a failure, especially by the standards of a big-budget superhero movie. It did take in $167 million worldwide, but on the back of a $185 million budget, The Suicide Squad seemed to be floundering.

Related: Where The Rest Of The Suicide Squad Are During Peacemaker

On Twitter, a fan tweeted that they hope The Suicide Squad finds a big audience on HBO Max, to which James Gunn had a surprising response. He announced that "TSS is already the biggest DC project ever on streaming & HBO Max." This hasn't been officially confirmed by the service, but if so it would mean that the streaming numbers are probably strong enough to make up for its poor box office showing, even outpacing the epic, fan-demanded Zack Snyder cut of 2017's Justice League. Check out Gunn's post below:

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Some might say that the existence of the new HBO Max spinoff series Peacemaker, which stars John Cena reprising his role, would prove that the film was doing well on streaming. However, that show was produced during the pandemic after the film's release date was delayed and concluded filming in July 2021, a month before The Suicide Squad premiered. It would be less of a financial risk to air the series than bury it.

On the other hand, it wouldn't be wise for James Gunn to lie about something that HBO could easily refute, so it seems likely that he's telling the truth. This spells good news for fans of The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker. If the streaming numbers continue to be strong, there's a chance that the franchise will live on, though they'll either have to give the next Suicide Squad project an exclusive theatrical window or perhaps just pivot it entirely to streaming from now on.

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Next: Peacemaker Means The Suicide Squad's Ending Didn't Matter

Source: James Gunn