Suicide Squad Breaks Box Office Records

Despite a middling critical reception, the DC Comics movie Suicide Squad met expectations and brought in around $135 million for its opening in the US this weekend, according to Deadline.

The Warner Bros. movie also shattered the August US box office record, easily surpassing Guardians of the Galaxy, which made $94.3 million during its opening in 2014.

Additionally, Suicide Squad's success pushes the total Warner Bros. 2016 box office haul to $1 billion in the US alone, a mark it has hit 16 years in a row; the studio has reached that figure in 17 of the last 18 years. This represents an industry record, according to Deadline.

Not only this, but Suicide Squad's record-breaking debut helped push total weekend box office receipts to $230 million for all movies. Never before has the August box office tally reached more than $200 million in a weekend.

Additionally, Suicide Squad is now one of the highest openings of 2016, only behind Captain America: Civil War ($179.1 million), Batman v Superman ($166 million), and Finding Dory ($135.06 million). What's more, Suicide Squad marks the highest opening ever for a Will Smith movie.

Suicide Squad is WB's fifth highest US opening in history, behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Batman v Superman, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Dark Knight.

Internationally, Suicide Squad brought in more than $132 million this weekend, pushing its global tally to $267.1 million. In reaching that mark, Suicide Squad beat out Deadpool's $264.7 million global release.

Suicide Squad is directed by David Ayer, and tells the story of a group of death row supervillains who are employed covertly by the US government to perform dangerous missions, in return for reduced prison sentences.

It stars Jared Leto as Joker, alongside Will Smith as Deadshot, and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, and Jay Hernandez co-star, with Ben Affleck making a cameo appearance as Batman.

For more on Suicide Squad, check out GameSpot's review and what other critics are saying.

This post has been updated and corrected.