Preview night screenings for James Gunn‘s The Suicide Squad raked in $4.1 million last night, marking the biggest opening for an R-rated movie to be released since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of last year. That keeps the movie on track for about a $70 million worldwide opening weekend, numbers that had been projected earlier this week. It also bodes well for Warner Bros., who have The Suicide Squad and a few months’ more worth of big movies (including Dune and the Sopranos spinoff The Many Saints of Newark) debuting on HBO Max at the same time as their theatrical release.
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The Suicide Squad is likely to be one of Warner’s biggest movies this year, although it is held back by the R-rating, which limits the amount of money you can make off the teen box office. Those people, it seems, will have to settle for watching it for free on HBO Max in the comfort of their homes.
The movie is unlikely to match David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, which got poor reviews but earned almost $750 million. It may perform more like Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, which earned a little over $200 million. If that happens, though, it’s likely The Suicide Squad will be seen as a hit, since it will be making that kind of money in the context of the pandemic and an overloaded box office.
In The Suicide Squad, welcome to hell — a.k.a. Bell Reve, the prison with the highest mortality rate in the US of A. Where the worst Super-Villains are kept and where they will do anything to get out — even join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X. Today’s do-or-die assignment? Assemble a collection of cons, including Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Captain Boomerang, Ratcatcher 2, Savant, King Shark, Blackguard, Javelin, and everyone’s favorite psycho, Harley Quinn. Then arm them heavily and drop them (literally) on the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese.
The Suicide Squad will see the return of Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Joel Kinnaman as Colonel Rick Flag, and Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang from 2016’s Suicide Squad. Joining them in the film are David Dastmalchian as Polka-Dot Man, Steve Agee as King Shark, Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher 2, Idris Elba as Bloodsport, John Cena as Peacemaker, Nathan Fillion as T.D.K., Pete Davidson as Blackguard, Flula Borg as Javelin, Mayling Ng as Mongal, Peter Capaldi as The Thinker, Michael Rooker as Savant, Alice Braga as Sol Soria, and Sean Gunn as Weasel.
The Suicide Squad is set to be released both in theaters and on HBO Max on August 6th.
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Image courtesy of DC Studios
