When it hit theaters, The Suicide Squad — which is to say the confusingly titled sequel to 2016’s freak hit Suicide Squad (no definitive article) — was a colossal bomb. So far it’s still only grossed $50 million domestically. But it’s not like a ton of people didn’t watch it. After the film’s dismal opening weekend, Warner Bros. claimed it was one of their most viewed day-and-date releases, i.e., the batch of big films they release in theaters and on their streamer, HBO Max. Now we have independent data to back at least some of that up.
As per Deadline, Samba TV, which measures streaming data in three million households, says The Suicide Squad out-streamed other DC movies in the last year, including Wonder Woman 1984 and the “Snyder cut” of Justice League. Not bad for a ragtag group of villains exploited by the government for their own cynical means.
James Gunn’s sequel wasn’t, however, able to nab the top slot among the company’s day-and-date releases. In fact, it only nabbed third place. Top honor still goes to an equally bloody picture: Mortal Kombat. Where The Suicide Squad claimed 4.7 million households, as per Samba TV, Kombat nabbed 5.5 million. Godzilla vs. Kong, which hit theaters as the first wave of vaccinations were going into effect, has silver with 5.1 million. At the box office, GvK grossed a whopping $100 million domestically, while MK only got $42 million. So people were more likely to watch the smaller-scaled movie about battling fighters at home while more went out to watch giant kaijus.
In any case, good news for The Suicide Squad, which opened right as the Delta variant escalated and just happened to be readily available on a very popular streamer.
