Will ‘Suicide Squad’ break August box office record?
The ragtag dysfunctional superheroes known as the Suicide Squad are branded the “Worst. Heroes. Ever,” but their debut film got off to a powerhouse start Friday with moviegoers that should give Deadshot, the Joker, Harley Quinn and the others new reason to go on living.
“Suicide Squad,” the Warner Bros. treatment of yet another potential franchise from the DC Comics universe, took in an estimated $65.1 million on Friday, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. On the heels of Thursday’s early screening take of $20.5 million, “Suicide Squad” appears on track toward an opening domestic weekend gross of $138 million.
If that number holds up, the new film will easily surpass the 2014 Marvel hit “Guardians of the Galaxy” as the biggest August opening weekend. “Guardians” opened with $94.3 million.
The “Suicide Squad” tale of antiheroes imbued with superhuman powers was a hit with its early audiences, gathering an overall B-plus rating, according to CinemaScore’s exit polling.
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Not surprisingly the film attracted more males (54%) than females, but it played better to women and girls, who rated it A-minus.
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“Suicide Squad” also was better received by moviegoers 34 and younger, who made up 76% of the audience and gave it an A-minus. The film scored a B-plus with moviegoers 35 and older.
It fared signficantly worse with film critics, generating more mixed or negative reviews than positive. It has earned a tepid score of 40 out of 100 at the aggregate review site Metacritic.com.
Times film critic Kenneth Turan called it “a concept in search of a story,” raised issues with plot and character development and concluded that “any film that allows you the leisure to ask all these questions is not doing enough right.”
The New York Times, meanwhile, called it “a so-so, off-peak superhero movie” that “chases after the nihilistic swagger of ‘Deadpool’ and the anarchic whimsy of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ but trips over its own feet.”
Friday’s take from screenings in 4,255 theaters averaged $15,306, according to BoxOfficeMojo.
“Suicide Squad” took in nearly ten times the gross of Friday’s No. 2 movie, “Jason Bourne,” heading into its second week in theaters.
Universal’s newest Bourne film collected almost $6.6 million on Friday, bringing its estimated eight-day gross to just under $87.3 million.
The only other new release to crack BoxOfficeMojo’s Top 10 was EuropaCorp’s “Nine Lives,” the Kevin Spacey-Jennifer Garner cat-centric comedy that took in an estimated $2.4 million on Friday, landing it at No. 6.
It has generated scathing reviews and scored a dismal 12 on Metacritic.com. Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers wrote, “At 87 torturous, laugh-free minutes, the film could change the most avid cat fancier into a kitty hater.”
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