'The Suicide Squad' Red Band Trailer Sets New Worldwide Viewership Record

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The film officially beat out 'Mortal Kombat' as most-watched red band trailer ever in its first week.Screen-Shot-2021-03-26-at-12-02-09-PM-png-2.jpg

James Gunn has revealed on Twitter that the red band trailer for The Suicide Squad has already broken the record for most views accumulated by an R-rated trailer in its first week online, just a few weeks after Mortal Kombat set the new benchmark.

The soft reboot of the titular team of comic book antiheroes has notched up over 151 million views since debuting, blasting past Mortal Kombat’s 116 million, which by itself shattered the previous tallies set by Fox’s Logan and Deadpool 2. Now, all we need is to see Harley Quinn and the gang face off against Liu Kang, Raiden and the rest in the crossover to end all crossovers. Speaking of Liu Kang, Mortal Kombat's Ludi Lin acknowledged the news in a tweet of his own, saying "Can’t make a Suicide Squad without a few “fatalities” along the way. Congrat[sp] @jamesGunn. But we’re keeping the title of Best Bromance of the year!"
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. 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, and you may have heard about the intimate drama called Zack Snyder’s Justice League.

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.

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.
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The Suicide Squad is scheduled for release in theaters and HBO Max on August 6. You can check out the filmmaker’s reaction below, and obviously, he used the trailer’s breakout star to celebrate the news.