‘Suicide Squad’ tops global box office

Despite bad reviews, Warner Bros’ super villain adventure earns $58.7m globally

LOS ANGELES: Suicide Squad topped global box office charts for a second consecutive week. The super villain adventure picked up $58.7 million from 15,600 screens across 62 territories, pushing its global gross to $465.4 million.

That’s a big haul but Warner Bros. spent lavishly on the film, shelling out $175 million to produce the movie and north of $100 million to market it.

It needs to be one of the year’s biggest hits for the studio to turn a profit. To that end, the film is fighting bad reviews and poor word-of-mouth as it tries to keep bringing in crowds. It also has been denied entry into China, depriving it of as much as $100 million in revenue from the world’s second biggest market for film.

Suicide Squad opened in Argentina and Italy over the weekend, picking up $2.5 million and $2.2 million, respectively. Among holdover territories, the film nabbed $6.7 million in Brazil, $5.5 million in the United Kingdom, $4.4 million in Australia, $4.3 million in Mexico, and $4.3 million in Russia. In the US, the film slid a painful 67% in its second weekend, earning $43.8 million.

In second place, Illumination Entertainment and Universal’s The Secret Life of Pets racked up $40 million from 48 territories. The animated hit centres on what animals do while their masters are at work. It has made $592.6 million globally, on a $75 million budget. It opened in first place in Japan this weekend with $10 million. After its second week of release in China, The Secret Life of Pets has generated $49.1 million. Line Walker, a Hong Kong-Chinese crime film, took third place, earning $26 million.

Universal’s Jason Bourne picked up $18.6 million from 60 foreign territories, bringing its global gross to $246.2 million. Love 020, another Chinese release, rounded out the top five, earning $17.5 million.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 16^th, 2016.

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