‘Suicide Squad’: How its marketing campaign compensated for a bad film

‘Suicide Squad’ (2016)

Imagine yourself sitting in an IMAX theatre about to watch DC Comic’s Suicide Squad ( Ayer , 2016)— chair inclined, feet splayed out, chomping on buttery popcorn with an XXL Pepsi. You made it just in time for the film — in fact, you got advanced tickets to a sold-out showtime. You’re excited for what masterpiece you’re about to see — a top-heavy production budget, and being an all-star roster casted as flashy super-villains.

You watch the film, and it isn’t what you expected. In fact, the film was worse than you thought.

It’s complete shit.

Why? Why was Suicide Squad so bad? The trailer and posters blew your mind — the classic rock tracks, clever one-liners, Margot Robbie as character Harley Quinn, and Jared Leto as The Joker. It was all there; the film seemed to be provocative and zany in the best way — with an official trailer and billboards serving as a trend-setter in the box office-popular, comic book-driven movies.

Or at least, the marketing campaign was.

The visuals — trailer, posters, casting, etc. — compensated for a terrible film, to be blunt. It costed over $175 million to produce and market; and $75 million of that went to its campaign. The film itself grossed, however, nearly $745.6 million worldwide, respectively.

Poster 1 for ‘Suicide Squad’ (2016). Courtesy of Warner Bros.

It’s fair to say that Suicide Squad’s visual marketing strategy curated its box office rewards and results, more so than the film, and here’s how they did it.

The posters.

Its tactic is a little old-school, especially for modern Hollywood where social media is paramount to distribution studios and exhibitors of these films, but Warner Bros. and DC Comics made it work. The grungy, graffiti-like artwork (see Poster 1) proposed the film’s narrative — its characters, their personalities, and even what they’d say. It’s a novelty; a means of visually communicating the underlying thematics of the film itself. The colours are vivid, gaudy, and ostentatious neon green, pink, red purple…the list goes on. It embodies the film’s essence.

Poster 2 for ‘Suicide Squad’ (2016). Courtesy of Warner Bros.

The trailers.

This was a gigantic home-run for Warner Bros. and company. First premiering at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con (a great PR platform to create buzz), Suicide Squad’s visual campaign was born — and to a mass audience.

“Suicide Squad — Official Trailer 1” (Courtesy of Warner Bros.)

The cutting of key scenes and quirky one-liners; it all caters to the introduction of characters and its narrative. It is the final product of genius editing. The rhythm of its special effects and character movements are in sync with Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” — arguably one of the greatest, most well-known songs of all time. You get it all, and its topped off with high-intensity action sequences to boot.

This trailer is supremely effective to its targeted (and mass) audience/market, and accumulated over 180 million views via YouTube. It heavily focuses on Harley Quinn and The Joker, arguably two of the film’s biggest, most anticipated characters within the comic book industry, delivering convincing dialogue that ought to get viewers excited. But what works most of all for this trailer, is that it tells you almost nothing of the film, but glaringly teases you with everything you need to see in order to pre-purchase that $12 ticket to Cineplex.

The cast.

Still image of cast of ‘Suicide Squad’. (Courtesy of Warner Bros.)

What happens when you have Fresh Prince legend Will Smith, Oscar-winners Jared Leto & Viola Davis, and up-and-coming stars Margot Robbie, Jay Hernandez & Jai Courtney?

Box office prowess, and most of all, accredited diversity. Suicide Squad would not have worked if it wasn’t for this strategically casted roster of talent. This is a winning combination for a Hollywood film and its marketability — their talent, isms, and overall look fit the context of this project, and it comes with a revenue stream of ticket sales. This was genius casting.

Alas, the posters, official trailer, and compensates for the tragedy of the film itself. It is a prime example of how, it does not matter whether the film is of quality in terms of story, SFX or character development. Modern Hollywood views it this way: if the marketing campaign is not playing the main role of a project, then it is not deemed to take the risk.

However, Warner Bros. did take a risk with this visually-driven, unapologetic marketing strategy — a study that is more fascinating than the project itself. It is the supporting role of this very bad film (Rotten Tomatoes rated it 26% of 100), and saved it from being a box office failure. It captured the audience’s attention and interest before the word-of-mouth reviews of it did. Thus, Suicide Squad is a successful marketing campaign, to an unsuccessful film.