Warner Bros‘ latest The Suicide Squad film opened at $26.5 million this weekend, not exactly stellar, but still the best R-rated opener during the pandemic. Observers are blaming the lackluster box office, despite the positive reviews for James Gunn‘s offering, to its dual offer on HBO Max, where it’s free for subscribers.
Jungle Cruise, starring Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson, came in second in its second week, with $15.69 million. Many are attributing the continued success of the film to Johnson’s aggressive social media marketing. He has 332.2 million followers.
He wrote last week: “Been a JUNGLE CRUISE celebration all week long – THANK YOU – for making us the #1 MOVIE IN THE WORLD with an amazing $92M opening weekend worldwide ($35M domestic) 👏🏾🌍🍿🙏🏾. As we try to navigate our way thru this challenging Covid market, I’ve been a big advocate on creating an incredible EXPERIENCE IN THEATERS as well as an incredible experience IN YOUR LIVING ROOMS on the same day. Very important to me, to always give you and your families options as we all work hard to get on the other side of Covid.Thank you guys around the world for launching a JUNGLE CRUISE franchise by absolutely loving our characters and the wild adventures they journey on!!! Back to work ~ sip your ZO, now LFG! dj 🖤👊🏾”
