For a few minutes just forget the bad reviews from critics for Suicide Squad and focus on the people who actually paid money to see it. It's been clear for a while now that a huge opening weekend was expected, with estimates ranging between $125M-$145M, a new August record. Well now we're seeing just how big this debut might be as the film exploded with a whopping $65.1M on Friday night.
That number includes the killer, record-breaking $20.5M it earned on Thursday night as audiences flocked to see the third DCU film from Warner Bros. It also added an additional $33M internationally, bringing its foreign total to $64.6M for a worldwide haul of $129.7M. At this point Suicide Squad is on target to hit the upper end of the projections which would crush Guardians of the Galaxy's $94.3M from a couple years ago, but we'll see how all of that pans out tomorrow.
While this is all good news, let's not forget Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice opened at $166M then plummeted domestically in the wake of scathing reviews. Its theatrical run finished with $872M, but only $330M of that was U.S.-based. While Suicide Squad's critic score on Rotten Tomatoes is at a lowly 27%, its Cinemascore from audiences is a B+ which is better than what 'Batman v Superman' had at this point. It's also worth noting that the Rotten Tomatoes audience score is 74%, showing the split between critics and paying customers. There was a similar divide with 'Batman v Superman' but nobody ever talks about that because good news doesn't rate like shitty news.
You can check out my review of the film here, and as always I encourage you to see the film for yourself and judge accordingly.
