Suicide Squad is killing it at the box office, breaking the record for an August movie opening at the US box office. The movie, based on the DC comics antihero team and starring Will Smith, Margot Robbie and Jared Leto, grossed $135.1 million over the weekend.
The commercial success of Suicide Squad occurred despite a slew of negative reviews that resulted in a rating of 26% on film aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes following the movie’s rushed and crazy shooting schedule.
The negative reviews resulted in a petition on Change.org calling for Rotten Tomatoes to be closed down which has so far attracted over 21,500 supporters.
Thank you thank you thank you! To the folks making @SuicideSquadWB a success this weekend. It’s just a fun Summer movie with a good heart.
— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) August 7, 2016
The cascade of negative reviews for Suicide Squad followed by a strong opening weekend mirrors another DC superhero film Batman v Superman which reaped $166.7 million last March.
But that movie subsequently markedly declined commercially and Warner Bros- as well as millions of DC comics fanboys- will be hoping that a 41% decline from Friday to Saturday isn’t an omen for Suicide Squad to repeat the fate of the Caped Crusader’s collision with the Man of the Steel.