It's difficult for an original IP to make an impact at the box office, and even harder in the midst of a pandemic. Despite that, Free Guy has managed to exceed expectations at the North American box office this weekend with an estimated opening of $26.4 million. This is quite a bit higher than the $15 million - $20 million initially projected by analysts, so Disney has to be happy with these numbers.
That might explain why plans for a sequel are already being put in place, and as this first instalment only cost $120 million to produce, it's easy to imagine a follow-up turning a huge profit.
So, it's good news for filmmaker Shawn Levy, Ryan Reynolds, and Disney this weekend, but for Warner Bros. and James Gunn...well, the past few days have been an unmitigated disaster. The Suicide Squad dropped 81% on Friday for a $2.2 million haul, Deadline believes the DC Comics adaptation will only score $8.1 million in total (a 69% decline) for a running ten-day total of $43.2 million.
Ultimately, The Suicide Squad will probably never even match Suicide Squad's opening day haul during its entire run at the domestic box office. To make matters, worse, it's somehow slipped from #1, right down to #5 with Don't Breathe 2, Respect, and even Jungle Cruise topping it.
Peacemaker may be on the way to HBO Max, but pandemic-related complications aside, this franchise might just be D.O.A. at this point. Revisiting it for a third movie even after the worst of COVID has passed would be a risky business decision, and these numbers prove there's little interest there.
Luckily for Gunn, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is likely to be a guaranteed hit when it arrives in 2023.
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