Suicide Squad tops US box office with US$26.6m

Los Angeles

THE Suicide Squad, a critically acclaimed comic-book film from Warner Bros, led the North American weekend box office that is still struggling to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and the Delta variant now surging around the world.

The film, a sequel to the 2016 hit, is set to generate US$26.6 million in ticket sales, according to researcher Comscore, lower than the industry expectation of US$28 million.

While it is one of the strongest openings of the pandemic era, the number is far short of what would have been likely in pre-Covid times.

New coronavirus cases are cutting into ticket sales, and many film fans will opt to watch the movie at home on HBO Max, where it is available at no extra charge.

Studios have debuted some films to great fanfare and respectable box-office sales figures, only to see fresh bad news on the pandemic trigger unease in consumers reluctant to be in crowded settings like theatres.

In an earnings call last Friday, the chief executive officer of Cinemark Holdings, the third-largest US movie chain, described the key issues facing the industry.

"The rebound of this theatrical exhibition is contingent upon four key global considerations: one, the status of the virus and vaccinations; two, government restrictions; three, consumer sentiment; and four, availability of new film content," Mark Zoradi told analysts.

A few years ago, Suicide Squad would have been a fairly reliable moneymaker. The 2016 version of the movie starring Margot Robbie made US$133.7 million in its domestic opening weekend.

That same year, another DC Comics movie, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, generated US$166 million in its first three days in US and Canadian theatres.

Because of coronavirus, however, the new film will struggle to even match the opening weekend tally of those predecessors over its entire US theatrical run.

Boxoffice Pro forecasts The Suicide Squad will top out at around US$150 million in the US. Warner Bros, part of AT&T, spent about US$185 million making the picture, according to trade reports.

That's despite a highly favourable 93 per cent score at Rotten Tomatoes, which aggregates critics ratings. The picture, which features an ensemble cast that includes Robbie, Idris Elba and John Cena, follows a group of super villains tasked with destroying US government enemies on a tropical island.

Film piracy may also be holding back box-office sales. Movies available for streaming are easier to copy, according to Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at Boxoffice Pro.

Receipts for top 10 films slid more than expected, falling about 17 per cent from the previous weekend's US$75 million.

Walt Disney's Jungle Cruise took the No. 2 spot with US$15.7 million in sales, and its Marvel film Black Widow took the No. 4 spot, five weeks after its debut, making US$4 million. BLOOMBERG