Warner Bros.
"Suicide Squad."
That blew away the previous record holder, last year's hit "Guardians of the Galaxy," which opened with $94.3 million.
This is the second consecutive DC Comics movie from Warner Bros. that has come out of the gates with a record-breaking opening. Back in March "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" opened with a $166 million opening, beating "The Hunger Games" ($152.5 million).
But like "Batman v Superman" the question everyone in Hollywood is asking is what kind of life at the box office "Suicide Squad" will have after this weekend.
Following the opening weekend "Batman v Superman" dropped 69.1% in ticket sales its second weekend, a dramatic drop for a blockbuster movie which was plagued with negative reviews. The movie eventually made $872.6 million worldwide.
"Squad" currently has a 26% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (lower than what "Batman v Superman" had at the time of its release) so the prospect of the movie having a big drop in sales next weekend is probable.
However, for big movie studios major opening weekend grosses are a big deal. And in the case of a comic book movie it proves to the heads that there is a fan base that wants to see the film (the movie needs to earn around $750-$800 million worldwide in its theatrical run to be an undisputed success).
The good news for "Squad," which was released on over 4,200 screens, came on Thursday when the movie broke the August Thursday preview screening record with $20.5 million. That figured added to the film's $65 million take on Friday. But the projections of the movie taking in between $140 million - $150 million were squashed when Saturday figures showed a 40% drop in sales from Friday, putting the opening in the $130 million-range.
We will see if this is a sign of things to come for "Squad" now that it looks like the fanboy-hype has passed.
Rounding out the rest of the top box office earners: "Jason Bourne" came in second with $22.7 million, and "Bad Moms" took in $14.2 million (according to the film's studio, STX Entertainment) to come in third. The other wide release of the weekend, "Nine Lives," in which Kevin Spacey is turned into a cat, is expected to take in a disappointing $6 million on over 2,200 screens.