What The Suicide Squad’s Box Office Means For Margot Robbie’s POTC Reboot

The Suicide Squad underperformed at the box office in its opening weekend, calling the future of star Margot Robbie’s Pirates of the Caribbean reboot into question. The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise was never expected to be a massive money-spinner, but after The Curse of the Black Pearl proved a huge hit upon release in 2003, the series soon became one of cinema’s most financially successful properties. 2017’s Dead Men Tell No Tales earned almost $800 million and was considered a serious under-performer, to contextualize the sheer size of the series.

Although Disney seemingly attempted to replace Pirates of the Caribbean with Jungle Cruise, the franchise’s massive fandom does not seem to be flocking to this new action-adventure-comedy at the same rate as the earlier series. This may mean the studio will now need to rely on their proposed Margot Robbie-starring Pirates of the Caribbean reboot to salvage the franchise. However, now the underperformance of Robbie’s own outing The Suicide Squad could call this plan into question, too.

After the relative underperformance of 2020’s Birds of Prey, the question of whether one of the most expensive franchises in cinema history should be reliant on a Margot Robbie antiheroine is once again up for debate thanks to The Suicide Squad’s less-than-ideal haul. The Suicide Squad earned only $26.5 million in its opening weekend compared to the $133 million opening weekend of its 2016 predecessor, a massive gap that even the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic could not entirely account for. Margot Robbie’s Pirates of the Caribbean reboot had, until recently, been mooted as the project that would allow the series to move on from former star Johnny Depp, but this is looking increasingly unlikely thanks to The Suicide Squad’s underperformance.

However, The Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey both boasted R-ratings where the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is more family-friendly. This means the comparison of their performances may be unfair on Robbie’s box office potential. That said, 2016’s The Legend of Tarzan—another live-action Disney blockbuster starring Robbie—could be a relevant comparison, and that reboot also underperformed at the box office, either not quite or just about breaking even (depending on the report).

The effect of COVID-19 is also a relevant factor, and (with any luck) will not be an issue by the release of Robbie’s Pirates of the Caribbean spinoff. However, this does not account for unexpected recent box office hits like The Green Knight, which earned $7 million in its opening weekend despite being released amid the pandemic. Ultimately, only time will tell whether The Suicide Squad’s continuing performance can reinstate faith in Robbie’s box office potential, or whether Disney will need to reconsider their plan to pin the future of one of their most lucrative franchises on a reboot. The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise seems unlikely to rehire former star Johnny Depp, but the underperformance of its reboot star Margot Robbie’s The Suicide Squadcould galvanize the studio to reconsider their options.

About The Author

Cathal Gunning
(1448 Articles Published)

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies and TV online since 2020. His obsessions include The Simpsons, Stephen King, the Scream series, and the horror genre in general. He has spent more time thinking about Stranger Things than the writers of Stranger Things, and he has never seen a Star War.

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