‘The Suicide Squad’ Red Band Trailer, Most-Watched In Its First Week

JAMES Gunn has revealed on his Twitter account that the red band trailer for The Suicide Squad has already broken the record for most-watched by an R-rated trailer in its first week online.

“I can’t wait for you to see Harley in her full insane glory & @IdisElba’s intense star power & the madness of King Shark, Weasel & Starro… but I’m maybe most excited about introducing the magic of @MelchoirDaniela as Ratcatcher 2 to the world.

“I just got word #TheSuicideSquad redband trailer set a new record for most views of a redband trailer in a week, with over 150 million views worldwide. I’m incredibly grateful to all of you for making this happen! THANK YOU!,” says the filmmaker.

The reboot of the The Suicide Squad, the team of comic book antiheroes has reached over 151 million views since its debuts last Friday (March 26), and now holds the all-time record worldwide.      Officially beating Mortal Kombat’s 116 million views, which by itself shattered the previous tallies set by Fox’s Logan and Deadpool 2.

Having two in-house trailers set records so quickly is yet another win for Warner Bros. in 2021, with the studio looking increasingly vindicated in the divisive decision to release its entire slate of movies on HBO Max the same day they arrive in theaters.

The first trailer for The Suicide Squad came on the heels of Zack Snyder’s Justice League too, so the DCEU has been on our minds a lot more than usual.

Not only is Godzilla vs. Kong on track to smash pandemic-era box office records, but hybrid releases The Little Things and Tom & Jerry both managed to top the domestic charts during their respective opening weekends.

The first Suicide Squad may have made a lot of money, but it’s hardly regarded as one of the best DC Comics adaptations. Gunn’s built-in popularity from helming the Guardians of the Galaxy duology for Marvel Studios and the wild red band trailer promising all sorts weird, wild, wacky and wonderful shenanigans has seen the second outing for the mismatched misfits generate plenty of buzz.

And of course, everyone wanted to show up for Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, who continues to steal the show with each new iteration of her character from different filmmakers.

In this Suicide Squad story, she’s donning her more classic red color palette and gets to hang out with Joel Kinnaman’s Rick Flag again, with Jai Courtney’s Boomerang and Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller also returning.

The crazy massive cast of the film also Idris Elba, Michael Rooker, Alice Braga, Nathan Fillion, Pete Davidson, John Cena and Flula Borg.

The promise of Sylvester Stallone voicing King Shark and the surprise cameo of Starro at the end of the first promo saw The Suicide Squad seize the zeitgeist, and given his background in the realm of R-rated genre insanity, Gunn is clearly pulling out all of the stops to ensure that the movie is the ideal distillation of his insane vision.

The Suicide Squad is scheduled for release in theaters and HBO Max on August 6.  (ROHN ROMULO)