Suicide Squad brought $80M to Toronto

It may be a battle for first place at the box office for ‘Suicide Squad,’ given the mixed reviews, but the real winner may just be the City of Toronto.

Filming the anti-hero DC Comic blockbuster brought in a whopping $80 million. The majority of the film was shot in the city’s downtown core, as well as in parts of Muskoka and the GTA.

“During the 98 days of filming, and 168 days of pre- and post-shoot work, the production created 4,707 jobs, spending well over $80 million in Ontario,” Eleanor McMahon, Minister of Culture, Tourism and Sport, and Motion Picture Association-Canada, said in a release.

Here’s the breakdown of some of the big ticket items that brought a flush of cash to the city:

• Over $12.5 million on all rentals, including truck and car rentals;
• More than $4.2 million on lumber and construction supplies;
• Close to $2 million on catering, bakery goods, and other food items;
• Over $2.6 million on location fees; and
• More than $785,000 on local wardrobe and dry cleaning services.

 

And it wasn’t just the production that stimulated our economy.

Excited fans flocked to the downtown core to check out the movie magic.

Thousands of people lined Yonge Street to catch a glimpse of the Batman riding atop the Joker’s car, or headed to the financial district to take photos of an epic crash involving a helicopter and a bus.

“Toronto provided the perfect backdrop for some of the high intensity scenes in Suicide Squad,” Bill Draper, president of Worldwide Physical Production, Warner Bros. Pictures., said in a release. “We had access to top cast, crew and extras, and fantastic small businesses throughout the province that supplied everything a large-scale production like Suicide Squad requires.”

Dubbed Hollywood North, Toronto is no stranger to big budget filming taking over the city. Take a look at five other big budget films that took over Toronto.