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Despite poor reviews, 'Suicide Squad' scores $135.1 million, setting record for August

By Ben Fritz 

Warner Bros. has been here before: a high stakes, big-budget superhero movie that overcomes negative reviews to score a huge opening.

But with "Suicide Squad" grossing $135.1 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend, according to estimates, the question is whether audiences will keep embracing the movie or, like March's "Batman v Superman," a big debut will be followed by a drop-off in ticket sales fueled by bad buzz.

Ultimately, "Batman v Superman" may have harmed as much as it helped the Time Warner Inc.-owned studio's DC Entertainment division, forcing Warner to quickly make changes for next year's sequel "Justice League." That movie, currently in production, is being more closely supervised by studio executives and will have a lighter tone than "Batman v Superman," according to people close to the project.

Most early evidence is that audiences were excited for "Suicide Squad," with its ensemble cast led by Will Smith and Margot Robbie. It blew away the prior record for an August opening: $94.3 million for Walt Disney Co. and Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" two years ago.

Overseas results were strong as well. "Suicide Squad" grossed $132 million in 57 foreign markets, led by the United Kingdom, Russia, Brazil and South Korea.

Opening-night audiences gave "Suicide Squad" an average grade of "B+," according to market-research firm CinemaScore. "Batman v Superman" earned a "B."

But there were also some worrying signs. The movie's Saturday gross of $38.8 million was lower than expected based on big ticket sales Thursday night and Friday, indicating it could quickly lose box-office momentum.

Jeff Goldstein, Warner's executive vice president of domestic distribution, said he was confident in the film's chances, particularly since people under age 35, who see movies more frequently, gave "Suicide Squad" an average grade of "A-." And few other big budget "event" movies are coming out for the rest of August.

"Clearly audiences enjoyed the promise of the film and I think the marketing was extraordinary," said Mr. Goldstein.

Less of a pitch down the middle than movies with famous superheroes like "Batman v Superman" and "Avengers," "Suicide Squad" features a largely unknown team of super-villains forced to team up by the government.

Despite the obscurity of its comic-book inspiration, "Suicide Squad" had a larger opening than the last Superman and Spider-Man films and February's blockbuster hit "Deadpool," which opened to $132.4 million.

Its production budget was about three times as high as "Deadpool" at $175 million, however, so expectations were much bigger.

Regardless of its long-term performance, "Suicide Squad" is already something of an anomaly in a summer that has seen many franchise films, including "Independence Day: Resurgence," "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows," and "Alice Through the Looking Glass" underperform at the box office. "Suicide Squad's" opening is the third highest for a movie this year, virtually tied with "Finding Dory."

The only other movie to open nationwide this weekend, the talking cat comedy "Nine Lives," from France's EuropaCorp, brought in a weak $6.5 million.

Following a good opening, ticket sales for the spy sequel "Jason Bourne, " from Comcast Corp.'s Universal Pictures, dropped significantly, by 62%. Ticket sales for the comedy "Bad Moms," from STX Entertainment, fell a modest 40%, indicating word-of-mouth is better.

Write to Ben Fritz at ben.fritz@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 08, 2016 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

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