'Suicide Squad' Currently the Most Buzzed-About Movie on Social Media, Beating 'Rogue One'

By Anthony D'Alessandro, Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros.’ Suicide Squad, arguably the last big tentpole of the summer on Aug. 5, generated the most social media conversations at 66K last week according to ComScore’s PreAct, beating other highly anticipated movies such as Disney’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Dec. 16) and Warner Bros.’ own Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Nov. 18). All data is for the period of June 17-23.

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In addition, Suicide Squad‘s total conversations on Pre-Act at 1.3M are beating the buzz on Paramount’s threequel Star Trek Beyond, which opens on July 22, by close to three-fold, Sony’s Ghostbusters on July 15 by 1.65 times, Warner Bros.’ upcoming Independence Day weekend release The Legend of Tarzan by close to 12-fold and Disney/DreamWork’s The BFG by nearly 14-fold.

In the wake of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice polarizing DC fans, director David Ayer underwent reshoots for Suicide Squad to make it more fun. There was a trailer dropped at CinemaCon set to Sweet’s “Ballroom Blitz” that resonated with the exhibitors in the room. Suicide Squad‘s social buzz stems from character posters, a new music video from the soundtrack and new footage dropping last week. Rogue One social media jumped during the span of June 17-23 due to the news that Darth Vader was definitely returning to the Star Wars saga, and Vader voiceover James Earl Jones, too. Teaser posters and a recent featurette pushed Fantastic Beasts’ chatter while the news about Bryan Cranston joining the Power Rangers’ cast as floating head mentor Zordon generated close to 33K conversations for the Lionsgate movie, due out March 24, 2017; close to half of its total online conversation to date at 68K.

Here’s the full chart from ComScore: