Box Office: 'Suicide Squad' Nabs Huge $267M Global Debut

‘Suicide Squad’ image courtesy of Warner Bros.

Suicide Squad opened around the world this weekend, as the DC Films offering debuted in fifty-seven territories starting on Wednesday. The picture earned a whopping $132 million on 17,760 screens overseas. That brings its worldwide cume to $267.1m worldwide in just five days of global release.  It was the all-time biggest overseas debut for an August opening, and its $7.2m IMAX take was a record for August as well. Regarding DC Comics films, it was the second biggest overseas opening after Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. It was also Warner Bros./Time Warner Inc.’s fifth-biggest overseas debut.

 The film earned $13.9 million in the United Kingdom while making the biggest opening weekend ever in Russia with $11.3m. Even with the Summer Olympics in town, the David Ayer action-er made $11.3m for the second-biggest WB debut ever.  Of note, its $10.7m opening in South Korea was 141% bigger than Guardians of the Galaxy and about even with Batman v Superman from earlier this year. And it earned $10.6m in Australia, which was 114% ahead of Guardians and 7% ahead of Dawn of Justice. 

The Will Smith/Margot Robbie/Jared Leto/Viola Davis film earned $10.4 million in Mexico for the biggest August bow and second-biggest WB debut ever. It earned $7.6m in France and $3.5m in Spain. It will open in Italy next weekend while bowing in Germany the weekend after that and in Japan on September 10th. It probably won’t play in China at all, which is a blow but we’ll see to what extent it’s a mortal one.

With a $267 million worldwide bow, the question now is whether it will have legs. If the film plays like Batman v Superman, and for the record the opening is not apples-to-apples regarding territories, we’re looking at a $555 million worldwide total. But if it’s even a little bit leggier than Dawn of Justice, then it’s arguably $600m-and-beyond for Suicide Squad. But for now, the WB supervillain picture is off to a tremendous start around the world and is sure to be one of the biggest movies of the summer, if not the year.