Marvel and DC fans have had an intense rivalry for a long time, and it's only picked up steam now that DC has a shared movie universe to compete with Marvel's. This particular rivalry typically reaches equal levels of silly and extreme, and while we all can agree that both companies have their merits, Suicide Squad has reached a personal milestone by surpassing one of Marvel's best films in the process. Suicide Squad has officially overtaken Captain America: The Winter Soldier at the box office.
Box Office Mojo has the official numbers and Suicide Squad has managed to rake in a global box office total of $718 million. This puts it ahead of Captain America: The Winter Soldier's total of $714 million. Suicide Squad premiered to a slew of negative reviews that many felt would weigh it down in a similar way to its predecessor, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. While it did suffer a big drop in its second week, Suicide Squad has proven to be the August champion, winning the number one spot three weekends in a row.
Though this is a pretty good achievement, Suicide Squad had already surpassed the Marvel sequel in the domestic box office. By its third week in theaters, the supervillain film had already beaten the total domestic gross of Winter Soldier.
While Suicide Squad has managed to pass Winter Soldier, that film is actually the sixth highest grossing film of the MCU. Suicide Squad has already passed films like Ant-Man, Iron Man, and Thor: The Dark World. But the supervillain blockbuster wasn't quite able to surpass the other big dogs of the MCU, namely Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man 3, Captain America: Civil War, The Avengers and its sequel, Avengers: Age of Ultron.
While box office grosses are typically used as a shorthand in Hollywood for success, it isn't always synonymous with quality. While Suicide Squad is a lighter affair that delivers some fun characters (mostly Harley Quinn), Winter Soldier is the superior film across the board with stellar action and characters, cementing itself as one of Marvel's best films. But you don't get over $700 million without having your fans, and it's always possible that the inevitable Suicide Squad 2 manages to fix the originals problems in pacing and coherence.
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