Without a doubt, Suicide Squad hit the theaters with a sub-optimal reception from critics, and while there was a good number of fans who enjoyed the film thoroughly, that didn’t stop the overall fan reception from being decidedly mixed. Even those who enjoyed the movie (like myself) had to admit there were some real plot and character issues in it.

As a result of these issues, the film continued to face large drops each weekend at the box office due to lukewarm word of mouth. When all said and done, it seemed like the film would cap out at anywhere from $600-$650 million — at least those were the numbers that were speculated when the film first hit theaters. However, a recent series of tweets from Forbes contributor, Mark Hughes, seems to indicate the movie may close out with a slightly higher figure than expected.

Here’s what he had to say in a series of tweets (via Screen Rant):

“#SuicideSquad added $60M globally past 7 days, raising total to $636M. If it falls 50% each week it adds $30M –> $15M –> $7M –> $3M etc. But if it falls 60% each week it adds $24M –> $9.6 –> $3.8 –> $1.5 etc. So, without Japan #SuicideSquad will take b/w $675M and $695M. Japan should add b/w $10-20M. This is MATH, so it’s silly to deny it. This all means #SuicideSquad will end its run with a total of b/w about $685M to $715M, high-end to low-end estimate. Again, it’s math. Without Japan, it does well enough that it simply looks foolish & disingenuous to continue pretending it’s doing poorly or unsuccessful. And the press is starting to realize that now, & are shifting gears to change the narrative & stop denying it. Others should, too.”

While it’s still up to the fans to determine whether or not Suicide Squad was a successful as an actual film, there seems to be little point in denying that the film was a success for Warner Bros. Sure, this figure may pale into comparison to Batman v Superman, a movie that closed out with around $872.5 million (a figure that seems to be a disappointment for the studio), but given that this was a film that followed a band of mostly-unknown villains, that’s not half bad at all.

Additionally, to put things into perspective, this only the third film in the DCEU, and if we look at where Marvel was at this point in their own Cinematic Universe, we need only look to Iron Man 2, a film that cost $200 million to make, and took in $623 million. Sure, they aren’t amazing numbers, but I don’t think neither could be considered a failure by any stretch of the imagination. And if we consider Suicide Squad the equivalent of a franchise-starter, a la Thor and Captain America, we can’t overlook the fact that Suicide Squad absolutely trumped those films financially, which took in $449 million and $370 million, respectively. Yes, the budgets were a bit lower ($150 million and $140 million, respectively), but not so much lower that it makes the comparison to Suicide Squad (which had a reported budget of $175 million) pointless.

What do you think of these predictions? Would you consider Suicide Squad a success? Let us know your thoughts down below!

Suicide Squad is in theaters now!

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SOURCE: Mark Hughes (via Screen Rant)