With coronavirus rising, 'The Suicide Squad' opens softly

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. But “The Suicide Squad,” featuring the “Guardians of the Galaxy” director's first DC Comics film, had seemed poised to be a bigger hit — and may have been if the delta variant wasn't keeping a lot of moviegoers home. “The Suicide Squad” cost about $185 million to make, but the current state of the box office doesn't offer much of a chance for profitability for movies at that scale. Warner didn't release any streaming or subscription data related to the “The Suicide Squad," but Goldstein said that every release has seen “a proportional response” on HBO Max that correlates to its popularity in theaters. Under current conditions, that isn’t happening.” Goldstein said that if not for the streaming half of its releases, Warner Bros. wouldn't likely be opening films like “The Suicide Squad.” “We've definitely declared that a day-and-date strategy with HBO Max is not our plan and it's not what we're going to do in 2022.