Suicide Squad experienced a tumultuous second weekend at the box office after exploding out of the gates to capture the biggest August opening of all-time. The DC Comics adaptation directed by David Ayer, the latest entry in Warner Bros. continuing efforts to launch a cinematic universe á la Marvel, still held the number one position with a $43.5 take but dropped a massive 67% in the process. The film, which stars Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Jared Leto and Viola Davis and centers around a team-up of the baddies of the comic canon has earned $222.6 million at the domestic box office thus far.
After opening to a staggering $133.6 million, it was expected that Suicide Squad would have a large second weekend drop – especially since critical and fan reaction to the film has been all over the map. Typically, blockbusters drop 50%-60% and are still thought to be in decent shape. Higher drops – Suicide Squad fared a little better than this spring’s Batman v Superman (69% drop in its second weekend) – point to spotty word of mouth. The film also had to contend with a better-than-expected opening from Sausage Party – the R-rated animated film opened to a robust $34 million, nipping at Suicide Squad‘s best-case second weekend potential. Pete’s Dragon also opened to decent $21 million, perhaps made a small dent as well.
However, Suicide Squad can boast a current worldwide box office total of $466 million and currently ranks as the eighth highest grosser of the year domestically – number seven, coincidentally is Batman v Superman ($330 million).