Bad reviews couldn’t stop the villains of DC Comics from taking over the box office. “Suicide Squad,” starring Will Smith, Jaret Leto, and Margot Robbie earned 135.1 million in its first week, making it one of the biggest openings of the year.

How does a movie fare well with fans but not critics? An opening as big as this movie has to ask the question of whether or not the way reviews are done now are flawed. With a 25% percent rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and almost three-fourths of people who watched the movie liked it, how can there be such a big discrepancy between critics and movie-goers?

It says a lot about a movie when it has the largest opening ever in August, easily surpassing “Guardians of the Galaxy,” a movie critics raved about. Should DC Comics keep their formula intact because they are thriving or should they make movies critics can get behind?

“We learn as we go,” said Jeff Goldstein, head of distribution for Warner Bros. “We’ve fine-tuned our strategy in terms of who’s in charge and how we’re approaching all our DC films. We’re modifying it in an exciting way to make all the subsequent films as great as possible.”

Fans of DC Comics showed their outrage with the low rating for “Suicide Squad” by starting a petition to shut down Rotten Tomatoes for the alleged bias towards DC Comics movies. Rotten Tomatoes doesn’t generate its own reviews so they aren’t responsible for what rating a movie gets so shutting down Rotten Tomatoes won’t accomplish anything.

DC Comics has shown that it is possible to make a profit by keeping loyal fans happy and until that formula fails, expect more movies from DC Comics that won’t be getting good reviews from critics. With a diverse cast, a strong social media campaign and big name actors such as Will Smith and Jared Leto should help DC Comics thrive no matter what the critics say.

Featured Image Via Flickr/Bagogames