When you put a fun, well reviewed movie starring a beloved actor into theaters and not on TV, a lot of people will show up.

That’s the lesson from this weekend, as “Free Guy,” a comedy, matches what “The Suicide Squad, a can’t-miss comic book adaptation, ” did last weekend, roughly $26.5 million.

“It’s heart-warming to see people respond to ‘heart-warming,'” Van City Reynolds just tweeted.

“Squad,” streamable as well as in theaters, is a blockbuster that wasn’t. And it is plunging off a cliff on its second weekend, so let’s hope those HBO numbers make up for a 70-80% falloff — to $8 million — in ticket sales.

That’s behind “Don’t Breathe 2’s” $10 million+, the 9 million+ “Respect” is managing and the $9ish “Jungle Cruise” is pulling down on its third weekend.

James Gunn might be grimacing a bit over this.