Ayer’s film follows a group of unsafe comic book villains – played by Will Smith (Deadshot), Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), Jai Courtney (Captain Boomerang), Jay Hernandez (El Diablo) and Cara Delevingne (Enchantress) – who are recruited to fight off a deadly threat. It also ranks as a new personal best for star Will Smith, trumping “I Am Legend’s” $77.2 million debut in 2007. In a huge reveal, Warner Bros. announced Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice pairing the two most popular characters together and opening the door to their own shared universe. It also just narrowly edged out the R-rated Deadpool which earlier this year had a three-day debut of $134.2 million. Both females and those younger moviegoers liked the better, giving it an A- and A, respectively.
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The moment DC Comics fans have been waiting for since its announcement in 2014 is finally here – “Suicide Squad” opened in theaters across the globe on Friday. The Warner Bros. release received a B+ CinemaScore from audiences, ahead of Batman v Superman’s B score. Not everything was roses for “Suicide Squad”, though, despite dominating the weekend.
UPDATED August 7, 12:07 p.m. ET: Suicide Squad is absolutely killing it at the box office this weekend. “The reviews are usually a barometer of a big drop next weekend”.
The weekend’s other new release, EuropaCorp’s “Nine Lives”, died a quick death.
With such a stellar marketing campaign surrounding the film, its gargantuan box office opening shouldn’t come as any great surprise; the true test for Suicide Squad comes next weekend, when we’ll really see whether the gang can go the distance. “The flow of the movie is the highest master”. Ousted from the company last February, Lambert died of lung cancer in May.
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The supervillains still bested Jason Bourne, the latest in Universal’s spy thriller series that took second with US$22.7 million. The family comedy is one of the year’s biggest hits, having made $319.6 million during its run. There’s no other immediate logical explanation for how Spacey ended up in Nine Lives, a movie so bad that it was lucky to bank $6 million for a sixth place start.
