Suicide Squad Takes A Box Office Dive, Sausage Party Wins Big

‘Suicide Squad’s ailing fortunes took a further dive this weekend, its box office takings falling by a sturdy 67% on its second week of release.

Though it remains at number one at the US and UK box office, it took a serious challenge from Seth Rogen’s R-rated animation ‘Sausage Party’.

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David Ayer’s critically-hammered, multiple-villain bonanza brought in $43.7 million (£33.8 million), while the considerably more niche ‘Sausage Party’ romped home with a solid $33.6 million (£26 million).

That means the star-laden comedy, boasting a voice cast of Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Kristen Wiig, and Paul Rudd, has already topped its modest $19 million (£14.7 million) production budget, and then some.

Though ‘Suicide Squad’ has brought in $465 million (£360 million) in its 12 days on release worldwide, the pace will only slow from this point onwards.

Some analysts have said that it will have to bring in over $800 million (£619 million) in order to start seeing a profit for Warner Bros.

The poor performance of the movie has been followed by reports of an ‘anxiety-ridden’ production, and rival cuts of the movie battling the vision of Ayer.

The comic book movie which was hoped would revive DC’s cinematic universe following the dismal ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ and be one of the biggest tentpole movies of the year, is now ranked at a lowly number 11 in the worldwide box office chart for 2016.

Meanwhile, Disney’s remake of ‘Pete’s Dragon’, the 1977 kid’s classic, has performed poorly too.

After a release on an expansive 3,702 screens in the US, it made just $21.5 million (£16.6 million), not much more than Steven Spielberg’s ‘The BFG’, which made $18.7 million (£14.4 million), but has so far proved a rare, but decisive box office flop for the director.

Image credits: Warner Bros/Columbia Pictures/Disney