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The Suicide Squad Shows That WB Learned Nothing From Their Mistakes of BvS

The DC Extended Universe seemed to collapsed while on its last legs. The filmmakers tried their best to meet the expectations of the studio executives but it seems that the massive oversight in the creative process of the directors has finally caught up to the executives. The Suicide Squad was released with all the marketing prowess of WB behind it, it encompassed some of the major names in the industry but still failed to garner any support from the fans. Even the critics that watched the movie seemed to have given it favorable reviews as compared to previous installments in the DCEU. But all of this seems to have still fallen short of getting The Suicide Squad to its true goal of raking in the big bucks. Running after rave reviews on Rotten Tomatoes shows that WB learned nothing from their Mistakes of BvS.

Incorrect Focus

Mistakes of BvS

After the release of BvS WB saw as critics around the country and the world panned the movie with largely negative reviews. This disheartened the studio as they had put a significant amount of marketing effort behind the movie. Even though the critics categorically disliked it, the audiences still loved the movie and continue to flock to theatres to watch it and to research it over and over. This led to a situation where despite horrible critic reviews WB ended up making quite a bit of money from BvS. It grossed $873 million. Yes, it didn’t make a billion dollars, but it didn’t do as badly as The Suicide Squad either.

 

WB the starter assuming that they would make money no matter what they do if they market the movie right. Then instead of focusing on their universal ethos and interconnectedness, they started focusing on getting better reviews. This focus change was disastrous for the studio and led to the latest fiasco. Now, WB has a movie on their hands with rave reviews but terrible box office performance which is everything they did not want.

 

I mean, The Suicide Squad has just made $155 million worldwide. It was a big-budgeted R-Rated movie that had to pull off “Deadpool Numbers” in order to be successful. Yes, they would have gained a few subscribers on HBO Max, but that number would still be nothing compared to the Disney+ Number anyway. All they’ve done is bolstered piracy across the world. Alas! They still don’t seem to comprehend their mistakes.

 

Reviews Won’t Necessarily Help

Mistakes of BvS

When BvS came out the fans assured WB that they did not care for critic reviews. The fans wanted a cohesive universe and proper world-building. They could give a damn about what non-comic reading people think about the storyline. But WB did not listen to their viewers. Instead, they chose to double down on their efforts to get a clean slate of sorts.

 

In their endeavor to better their numbers on the critic scoreboard, they let the importance of world-building slip their mind. Lo and behold The Suicide Squad has a great Rotten Tomato score but horrible box office performance. Maybe this is the future that WB wanted. But it seems to us that they have made a grave error by trying to implement a flawed strategy. They need to consider the fans important.

 

They Always Had The Right Tone

Again, BvS was a masterpiece because of the Grimm tone of the movie. Zack Snyder captured the essence of the bleak reality of a world of Superheroes and put it on full display. It might have been a little unnerving but it was not unsettling. Hardcore Detective Comic fans appreciated the kind of things that Zack Snyder was trying to do. But the major problem was that WB did not see it that way. They blamed the horrible critic reviews on the director and asked him to step away from future projects.

 

They also introduced a fluffy tone in the franchise that meant horrible clashes and resorts. WB, in their effort to emulate MCU’s success essentially shot themselves in the foot. This, it comes as no surprise that fans did not appreciate the reshoots that much. Even the new movies had to be remade in the vision of the original director just to get praise out of the fans. Truly a failure on the part of the studio.

 

It Pays to have A Plan

The thing that Zack Snyder grasped well but WB did not was that a cinematic universe needs proper world-building. You just can’t go creating interconnected storylines by winging it every time. The studio must hash out how things will happen and when they will happen. MCU and Kevin Feige have done an amazing job of figuring this out but WB could never understand that. They thought that they could stick to their mediocre style of storytelling throughout a cinematic universe and build q cohesive universe. But my dear children, that is not how the game works.

WB probably learned the wrong lessons from their Mistakes of BvS. Do you think our analysis makes sense? Let us know in the comments below and keep watching this space for everything Marvel, DC and Hollywood.

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Vidit Sood

He's the biggest comic nerd from QB!
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