'Suicide Squad' Dramatic Second-Weekend Drop Just Shy of 'Batman v Superman' Freefall

While Warner Bros. tentpole “Suicide Squad” came in at No. 1 this weekend with an estimated $43.8 million, it’s not really a figure to brag about.

Having made $133.7 million on its debut last week, the big budget anti-hero movie’s second weekend grosses represent an abysmal 67.2 percent drop.

That’s rivaled by the studio’s other superhero movie that sputtered: “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” which suffered a devastating 69.1 percent drop its second weekend at the box office, only raking in $51.8 million after debuting with a whopping $166 million.

Also Read: 'Sausage Party' Sizzles at Record-Breaking $34 Million

The Ben Affleck-Henry Cavill film had a bigger drop-off than “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and “Elektra,” which had declines of 69 percent — still worse than “Suicide Squad,” starring Will Smith and Margot Robbie.

Seeing as the David Ayer-directed film had a $175-million price tag — and that’s not even counting the marketing budget, which was likely in the tens of millions — the film’s drop-off isn’t quite as detrimental as it was for “BvS,” made on a massive production budget of $250 million.

But that’s not saying much.

According to Box Office Mojo, the two comic-book-based films that had biggest second weekend drop-offs were 2010’s “Jonah Hex” and 2003’s “Hulk” (both 69.7 percent), although they didn’t open nearly as huge as both of this year’s Warner Bros. DC Comics movies.

Also Read: Read the Blistering Open Letter To Warner Bros. and CEO Kevin Tsujihara

“Jonah Hex” debuted to $5.4 million, whereas “Hulk” opened to $62.1 million — chump change in comparison to the both superhero movies out of Warners.

Fox’s “Fantastic Four” also earned the dubious distinction of second-weekend weakness in 2015. It earned only $25.7 million its opening weekend but also suffered a devastating blow when it grossed 68.2 percent less its second weekend. “Watchmen” also followed with a 67.7 percent decline in 2009.

Here are other examples of weak second weekends for superhero films: “Punisher: War Zone” (down by 67.6 percent), “Kick-Ass 2” (67.2 percent) and “X-Men: The Last Stand” (66.9 percent).

Also Read: 6 Reasons Why 'Captain America' Casts Big Shadow Over 'Batman v Superman'

Vulgar, Mean and Sexist: 6 Ways 'Suicide Squad' Is the Donald Trump of Superhero Movies

Much like Donald Trump's inexplicable rise to the top of the Republican presidential ticket, "Suicide Squad" is doing bang-up business in spite of plenty of criticism. At this stage, both Trump and "Squad" have been called every name in the book. Indeed, the two share a litany of dubious traits that we've collected here. Beware, spoilers ensue:
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Flip-Flopping
Early in the film, Deadshot says he plans to kill the government agents who have temporarily released him from prison. Mere seconds later he reverses his position, urging the Squad of supervillians to keep operatives Amanda Waller and Rick Flag alive. Did Trump write this script? The Republican nominee has flipped-flopped positions on an array of topics -- from abortion to the Iraq War to nuclear proliferation. At least Deadshot is acting for a logical reason -- he knows he'll be killed if he lets Flag die.
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Insulting Women
"You one of them deaf hoes?" Deadshot asks a female operative who fails to immediately respond to him. Trump also has a habit of insulting women by comparing them to animals. And as for the deaf part, Trump also mocked a disabled reporter.
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Objectifying Women
As strategically-directed camera angles remind audiences throughout the film, Harley Quinn wears little more than a pair of skimpy bottoms. Trump thinks plenty of other women exploit their looks to succeed. "It's certainly not groundbreaking news that the early victories by the women on 'The Apprentice' were, to a very large extent, dependent on their sex appeal," he wrote in his 2004 book "How to Get Rich."
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Paranoia
Enchantress may have suspected someone rigged her earth-destroying spell -- just like Trump has already started arguing that the November election will be rigged. After she employs her dark magic to take over the planet, she sticks around to fight the Squad. But why fight at all? Couldn't she just go to Fiji or somewhere and relax while she waits for her nefarious voodoo to finish its job?
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Needless Cruelty
Trump heckled the mother of a crying baby last week. Meanwhile, Suicide Squad mastermind Waller callously kills a roomful of fellow FBI agents because they weren't cleared for her top secret project. OK -- one of those is definitely worse than the other.
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A Money Man
As TheWrap pointed out, Donald Trump's chief fundraiser, Steven Mnuchin, is a producer on "Suicide Squad."

Mnuchin raised eyebrows when Trump named him as his lead fundraiser in May: He pocketed money stolen by Bernie Madoff; and Relativity Media, the studio behind "The Fighter," once accused his bank of "violating bankruptcy procedures."

Also Read: ‘Suicide Squad’ Executive Producer Is Donald Trump’s Chief Fundraiser
Getty/Warner Bros.

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Presidential candidate and comic book film share dubious traits

Much like Donald Trump's inexplicable rise to the top of the Republican presidential ticket, "Suicide Squad" is doing bang-up business in spite of plenty of criticism. At this stage, both Trump and "Squad" have been called every name in the book. Indeed, the two share a litany of dubious traits that we've collected here. Beware, spoilers ensue:

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