Even though Youtube hits aren’t the best determinate for box office success, looking at the Suicide Squad Comic-Con first look video, it’s clear that there is mainstream excitement for the movie. Currently the Suicide Squad “teaser trailer” has more views than the Batman v Superman Comic-Con trailer, and for something as unknown brand wise as the Suicide Squad, that’s pretty damn good.
Everybody and their grandma probably knows the characters of Batman and Superman and that they have a movie together that’s coming out. On the other hand, not many people know (and especially not their grandmother’s know) about the Suicide Squad. Although they’ve appeared in live-action before on episodes of Smallville and Arrow, they didn’t have the mainstream recognition that other DC properties, like Batman and Superman had.
When the Suicide Squad movie was announced a lot of people were confused by the announcement. First they were thinking what the heck are the Suicide Squad, and second why would Warner Bros release such an unknown property after Batman v Superman?
Soon we find out that popular characters like Harley Quinn and the Joker will be the main figures of the movie, which got the attention of many people. Still people weren’t 100% sure about this movie, many saying it was a copy of Guardians of the Galaxy (um no).
Then the Suicide Squad footage was leaked online. The Batman v Superman Comic-Con trailer got a lot of hype as it was released officially, but the leaked Suicide Squad footage was getting a lot of hype as well. And the more inaccessible something is, like the Suicide Squad footage which was only available in crappy cam footage, the more people want it. So when Warner Bros eventually gave in and released the trailer, I wasn’t surprised that people were interested in it, but I was surprised in the huge mainstream interest in it.
So huge that the Suicide Squad trailer has more views that the Batman v Superman trailer!! Now obviously this is the first footage we’re seeing of Suicide Squad but still, that sends a pretty clear message. Even though Batman is in the trailer, his scene is such a cutaway scene. Harley Quinn and the Joker, along with the rest of the Squad sell this movie by themselves.
I have friends who generally have no interest in superhero movies, excited about this one because it’s so different. People love bad guys. Bad guys have infiltrated popular culture for such a long time. And with Marvel Studio films failing to give the audience compelling bad guys, it gives WB/DC the opportunity to capitalise on that, and give the audience bad guys the want to root for like Harley and bad guys they want to hate like the Joker.
This bring us to the question of whether Suicide Squad should be rated R? After the release of the trailer, people have been talking about whether Suicide Squad should be Rated R or not. Yes it deals with some dark stuff in it, the Joker looks like a full-blown psychopath and it’s called Suicide Squad, so expect a lot of death, but I don’t think it should be. You can get away with a lot in a PG-13 rating, and really Suicide Squad doesn’t have to be that dark. It should be ridiculous and weird but it doesn’t need intense violence and themes that make you want to cry in a corner for a year. And looking at the mainstream attention the film is getting, there’s no point cutting part of your audience out. And the film has freaking Batman in it! Don’t deny the children Batman!
Although if Deadpool does well at the box office, we can’t expect to see some more lower budget, R rated superhero movies.
Anyways I don’t think Warner Bros will have a problem selling Suicide Squad next year, especially if Batman v Superman is a success. There’s an unbelievable amount of excitement for Suicide Squad online already, it’s up to WB to maintain that excitement until August 2016.
Categories: comic book movies
Girl-On-Comic-Book-World 
I’m more excited about this movie than I’ve ever been for any DC movie in my entire life.
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Haha it’s going to be exciting to see a villain centric comic book movie!
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I do not really disagree with anything you said. I would just urge a little caution in basing anything on the number of YouTube views. Why? Because the trailwr for Adam Sandler ‘ s Pixels set a record for Sony qhen it debuted, and now the movie is here and bombing at the box office. That being said, Suicide Squad seems like a different beast.
Also, in an ideal world this movie should get an “R”, but there’s no way in hell I see WB letting that happen. Deadpool is a unique case because Fox is not spending a whole lot on that one. WB has way more invested in Suicide Squad. So, PG-13 all the way. I agree that we shouldn’t let that get us down because there is a lot they can get away with in PG-13. The Nolan Batman movies were all Pg-13. So, if it wants to Squad can burn half of someone’s face off, shove a pencil through someone’s head, blow a poor girl up with a bomb, etc. Also, Ant-Man just snuck in a couple more swear words than we would have expected from pg-13.
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Oh yeah you can’t rely on Youtube views, I forgot that the Pixels trailer did so well haha. WB don’t seem interested in small budget superhero movies right now, so not expecting a R rating, especially after Watchmen. And you’re right, TDK trilogy got away with a lot, so I’m sure SS won’t be confined in a PG-13 rating.
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Full disclosure: I had also forgotten about the record the Pixels trailer set until earlier this morning when I read a write up of this weekend’s box office top 10.
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