The Joker is used to Batman breaking his funny bone in the years they’ve done battle. As the Suicide Squad trailer has proven since it was officially released following a rash of Comic-Con leaks, this time the Joker might get the last laugh over the Dark Knight when it comes to box office receipts.
Sometime this past Saturday night, the Suicide Squad trailer surpassed the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice trailer in YouTube views. At the time of this article on Sunday afternoon, Suicide Squad stands at 35,333,551 views while Batman v Superman is not far behind at 34,616,899 views.
Batman v Superman was first out of the gate with an official Saturday online release immediately following its Comic-Con Hall H panel debut. Warner Bros. had no intention of releasing the early Suicide Squad trailer, but that didn’t stop bootleg versions shot from cell phones to start spreading around the Internet like The Walking Dead virus.
Warner Bros. had thrown in the towel by Tuesday and officially released the Suicide Squad trailer in high definition. The pent up demand help accelerate its views and less than a week later it has passed the higher profile introduction of Batman into Zack Snyder’s DC Cinematic Universe.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice still maintains a healthy lead in trailer views on Facebook with 25,518,418 vs 18,899,047 for Suicide Squad. Regardless, it’s still impossible to deny that interest in the DC Comics villains-centric flick, including a new Joker portrayed by Jared Leto and the live-action debut of Harley Quinn by Margot Robbie, is as anticipated by the Internet as Batman v Superman is — if not more so.
The most interesting box office story of next year won’t be whether or not Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice has a huge opening, but whether or not Suicide Squad eclipses it a few months later.
