Many years down the line, the box office of one of DC’s most notorious movie releases becomes even more striking when compared to a classic MCU film. The DC and Marvel universes have had a fascinating time developing their own movie landscapes over the past few decades, with both releasing some huge franchises and major movie series within them. While the MCU timeline is the biggest of these, DC’s own offerings still hold an unforgettable and crucial place in the genre.
This period has seen both DC and Marvel release some of their best superhero movies, and some of their worst, too. With the benefit of years of hindsight now, many films that fall into both categories have become even more interesting, as time can change how we view their circumstances, and often more is revealed about the behind-the-scenes of the projects long after their releases.
One such infamous DC release, Suicide Squad, still remains fascinating even close to a decade later, especially when compared to the MCU movie that it beat at the box office. While Suicide Squad quickly earned a reputation for being one of the most controversial DC movie releases of all time, its box office results were still considerable, with the film’s worldwide box office total reported to be between $745-749 million.
Despite being a crucial part of the overall MCU as the debut of the franchise’s focal sorcerer and a character who would come to have an integral role in the overall dealings of The Infinity Saga, and despite making around 4 times its production budget, Doctor Strange’s $676-677 million worldwide box office still is some distance from Suicide Squad’s own. In fact, this places Doctor Strange not far from making $100 million less than the DC installment, which is made all the more unusual by the different general perceptions of the two films.
Suicide Squad is now remembered largely for its jarring moments and decidedly unfavorable Rotten Tomatoes scores, it’s easy to forget that the movie was the subject of some substantial hype before its actual release. Not only was Suicide Squad the first modern superhero movie to focus on a more morally complex team, it also had some huge star power behind it, with Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn and Will Smith’s Deadshot being but two of the figures audiences were excited to see.
The financial differences between the two movies are striking, with Suicide Squad netting a significantly higher box office total than Doctor Strange. This is all the more surprising given that Doctor Strange is a major MCU hero and his movie was key in bringing magic to the franchise, whereas Suicide Squad is often remembered for its controversy and poor critical reception. The difference in box office performance is a testament to the power of the superhero genre as a whole, and how the various parts of its legacy can demonstrate this, even when they are otherwise very different in a wide variety of ways.
Nine years later, the idea of Doctor Strange being less financially successful than Suicide Squad feels surreal, given the vastly different critical and commercial receptions the two films received at the time of their releases. Doctor Strange has an audience score on Rotten Tomatoes of 86%, and a critic score of 89%, reflecting the ways in which the MCU film has held up for the general public as the years have gone by, especially with Stephen Strange becoming far more important in the main storyline of the franchise midway through The Infinity Saga. On the other hand, Suicide Squad’s Rotten Tomatoes ratings are that of a 58% audience score, and a critic score of 26%, painting a far less positive picture of how the film is still perceived even all these years down the line.
