Despite the pounding Suicide Squad received from critics around the world, the early box-office figures are quite strong.
It's been reported by Variety that Suicide Squad scooped up $20,500,000 on its opening night in the US, breaking the record for August previously set by Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. For Warner Bros. / DC, Suicide Squad had the third biggest opening, with March's Batman v Superman in second and The Dark Knight Rises in first.
Overseas, Deadline has it that Suicide Squad pulled in $29,600,000 in 33 countries on its opening day, which brings the total raised for Suicide Squad in a single day to a little over $50 million. This all comes in spite of devastatingly negative reviews for Suicide Squad, with many critics - ourselves included - deeming it to be worse than Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
While this may be positive news for Suicide Squad so far, what will determine its fate is how long it lasts after the initial weekend. Word-of-mouth plays a large part, not to mention poor critical reviews and, as it was with Batman v Superman, the drop to the second weekend could be a deciding factor in Suicide Squad's fate.
Batman v Superman dropped close to 80% on its second weekend, one of the largest drops in box-office earnings in recent memory. With news that Suicide Squad was having a smaller Mexican release than anticipated and the fact that it still hasn't secured a release in China, the second-largest film market in the world, it's too early to tell if the film will be a success or not.
Insider sources have said that Suicide Squad has to reach $750,000,000 in order for it to break even, taking in international box-office and home releases. Batman v Superman's target was $1 billion, but came up short by approximately $100 to 150 million.
Did you watch Suicide Squad on its opening night? What do you make of it? Let us know in the comments!
Via Variety / Deadline
