Especially since studios always report that movies are never profitable. If you had back-end points on shit like Back to the Future or Harry Potter, you're probably *still* waiting to see Dollar 1.

So between studios obscuring actual costs at all costs, mis-reporting publicly what production budgets are, having no public marketing budget, and failing to declare what percent of the foreign box office they actually obtain, there's just no way to say for sure anything. I always heard for studio pictures that the general rough estimate one can usually make (which is the best anyone can usually do) is that the production budget is *also* the marketing budget-- the more they spend making it, the more they spend trying to put asses in seats. But that's still an *insanely* rough estimate, it assumes the production budget is accurately reported, etc. Tons of assumptions.

A good sign is a sequel. If they go forward with a sequel with a similar budget, then it made money. If they go forward with a sequel with a lower budget, then it was probably a wash but they saw potential for profits. If they don't sequelize it, it didn't make them the amount of money they wanted, because anything that is remotely profitable will be sequelized one way or another.

We'll ultimately see if Suicide Squad gets a sequel-- but I wouldn't be surprised. They'll never publicly report profit, but if they do a Harley movie or a Deadshot movie or a Squad sequel, that tells you what you need to know. If all of the plugs are pulled on any of those ideas, then... yeah.

Furthermore, people shouldn't be focusing on trying to spin DC box office failures. Instead, they should focus on the more terrifying truth-- that WB sliced up and Frankensteined Suicide Squad in a vain attempt to make it "more fun," and the box office was big enough that they will convince themselves that what they did worked. If anything, they will be *more* empowered to tinker with future DC movies as a result of Suicide Squad's success.