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SUICIDE SQUAD Grosses $135 Million in Record-Breaking Opening Weekend

From the get-go, tracking suggested that Suicide Squad would surpass Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy as the biggest movie debut in August. Initial tracking predicted a $125 million+ opening, while more recent estimates suggested a $130-140 million debut. Expectations increased even further after the film’s strong $65 million gross on Friday, leading to a $145-150 million prediction.

A 41% drop on Saturday led to slowed traffic, but Suicide Squad still earned a huge opening weekend. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the DC movie has grossed an estimated $135.1 million over the three-day weekend. This gives it the third biggest domestic weekend of 2016, following Captain America: Civil War and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The debut also edges out Finding Dory and Deadpool.

Suicide Squad has earned the second biggest opening weekend in the DC Extended Universe to date. It surpasses Man of Steel‘s $116.6 million debut. Batman v Superman retains its crown with a $166.1 million. Overseas, Suicide Squad grossed $132 million from 57 markets. This brings its global opening to $267.1 million.

This opening is especially impressive given the critics’ very negative reviews of Suicide Squad. This is similar to Batman v Superman‘s huge opening weekend despite the reviews. But that film also struggled to resonate with the general audiences, leading to unusual drops over subsequent weekends.

So, the big test for Suicide Squad will be its second weekend. It already has a higher CinemaScore than Batman v Superman (B+ vs. B), so it’s expected to be better received by general audiences. Also, Suicide Squad‘s production budget is $175 million, not counting marketing, which is much lower than BvS‘s $250 million+ budget. So, Squad should have no problem churning a profit for Warner Bros.

Stay tuned for more box office updates as we have them.

Founder and Editor-in-Chief of WOBAM! Entertainment.