Russia's culture minister calls ‘Suicide Squad’ a ‘garbage’ film after it breaks Russian box-office record

Vladimir Medinsky, Russia's minister of culture, has yet again slammed American popular culture, this time declaring that Hollywood feature films like “Suicide Squad” are “trash.”

Medinsky delivered these remarks while promoting “Cinema Night,” a national celebration of Russian films. “We spent several months choosing which films to show for ‘Cinema Night.’ We chose ‘Kikoriki’ for children. ‘Legend № 17’ [a 2013 biopic about the Soviet hockey player Valeri Kharlamov] and ‘Battalion’ [a 2015 war film about the WWI Russian Women's Battalion of Death]—these are big, spectacular movies, but they're nonetheless pure Russian cinema. This is cinema about people. Patriotic cinema is people's choice. It's important and our cinema is different from garbage like ‘Suicide Squad,’ which has infiltrated our screens from Hollywood,” Russia's minister of culture told reporters.

“Suicide Squad,” the Warner Bros film starring DC-Comics antiheroes, was released in Russia on August 4. Despite miserable reviews, the film has earned more than half a billion dollars worldwide, making 254 million rubles (roughly $4 million) on the day it premiered in Russia—the highest ever opening-night box office for a film in that country.

• Vladimir Medinsky is known for his dislike of American popular culture. Earlier this summer, he accused the US federal government of providing support to the video streaming service Netflix, as part of a nefarious effort to “get into every television” in the world.