'The Suicide Squad' Rakes In $26.5M To Dominate US Weekend Box Office

James Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad” topped the U.S. weekend box office with $26.5 million from a 4,002-screen premiere.

What Happened: The latest entrant in the DC Comics franchise, “The Suicide Squad” also had a simultaneous debut in a free presentation on the HBO Max streaming service. The $185 million R-rated action/adventure film from AT&T’s T Warner Bros. starring Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, Viola Davis, John Cena and Pete Davidson brought in an additional $35 million from theatrical engagements in 70 overseas markets, according to data from Comscore.

Last week’s box office champ, The Walt Disney Company’s DIS “Jungle Cruise, dropped by 55% into second place with $15.7 million in ticket sales across 4,310 theaters. “Jungle Cruise” is also in simultaneous release on Disney+ for a $30 fee, although the studio did not offer data on its streaming release.

M. Night Shyamalan’s horror/thriller “Old” from Comcast Corporation’s CMCSA Universal Pictures held the third place weekend box office ranking at $4.1 million from 3,318 screens – unlike “The Suicide Squad” and “Jungle Cruise,” “Old” is an exclusive theatrical release. Disney’s “Black Widow” secured the fourth place ranking with $4 million in 3,100 – it is also on Disney+ and the studio declined to offer the streaming audience data – and the theatrical-exclusive “Stillwater” from Comcast's Focus Features took fifth place with $2.86 million in 2,611 cinemas.

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What Happens Next: The next major studio releases scheduled for an Aug. 13 opening include the Ryan Reynolds science-fiction comedy “Free Guy” from Disney’s 20th Century Studios, the Aretha Franklin biopic “Respect” starring Jennifer Hudson from United Artists Releasing and the horror-thriller “Don’t Breathe 2,” a sequel to the 2016 feature from Sony Entertainment’s SONY Sony Pictures Group.

Elsewhere in the film world, the Beijing International Film Festival scheduled for Aug. 14-21 has been indefinitely postponed due to a rising level of coronavirus infections in China. This is the first major festival to be delayed as a result of the coronavirus’ Delta variant that has intensified a pandemic that many health officials forecasted as being in remission.

Photo: Margot Robbie in “The Suicide Squad,” courtesy of Warner Bros.