In 1959, the peaceful, all-white neighborhood of Suburbicon is shaken up by the arrival of an African-American family, the Mayers.
According to Producer Joel Silver, Joel and Ethan Coen originally wrote the script for Suburbicon in 1986, soon after the release of their film Blood Simple. In 2005, it was reported that George Clooney would star in and direct Suburbicon, while the Coen brothers would produce.
In the United States and Canada, Suburbicon was released alongside Thank You for Your Service and Jigsaw, and was projected to gross around $8 million from 2,046 theaters in its opening weekend. However, after making $1.1 million on its first day, weekend estimates were lowered to $3 million. It ended up debuting to $2.8 million, finishing 9th at the box office. The weekend marked the lowest wide opening of Clooney's directorial credits, and of Matt Damon's career, and the 32nd worst-ever opening for a film playing in over 2,000 theaters. It dropped 59% in its second weekend to $1.2 million, finishing 13th at the box office.
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 29% based on 223 reviews, with an average rating of 5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A disappointing misfire for Director George Clooney, Suburbicon attempts to juggle social satire, racial commentary, and murder mystery — and ends up making a mess of all three." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 42 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D–" on an A+ to F scale.
The film was eventually made ten years later, combining two previously unrelated scripts, one a crime film by the Coens, and one a historical drama based on the real-life story of the Myers family, the only black family in all-white Levittown, Pennsylvania who faced racially-charged harassment and violence from other residents. On December 8, 2015, Matt Damon, Julianne Moore and Josh Brolin joined the cast, and Oscar Isaac and Woody Harrelson later signed on as well. On August 31, 2016, Noah Jupe and Glenn Fleshler joined, to play Damon's character's son, and a hitman, respectively.
Suburbicon began filming in Fullerton, 30 miles south of Los Angeles, in October 2016. Alex Andre Desplat composed the film's score.
Paramount Pictures released the film in the United States on October 27, 2017.
Suburbicon was released on Digital HD on January 23, 2018, and on Blu-ray and DVD on February 6, 2018.
