‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Shatters Records with Successful $205 Million Box Office
The new movie, which stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, has provided a fresh boost to Marvel and continues Disney’s strong theatrical results this year.
Preview:
- ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ now has the record for the highest-grossing launch of an R-rated movie at the box office.
- It made an estimated $211 million domestically and $444 million globally.
- The MCU as a whole has now surpassed $30 billion in box office earnings.
It might sound silly to say, but Marvel really needed a hero. And from the looks of the box office results of ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’, it got two.
Because the new superhero team-up movie, which stars Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson/Deadpool and Hugh Jackman as Logan/Wolverine has blasted through box office records for R-rated releases and outstripped even enthusiastic predictions for its success, opening across its first three-day weekend (plus previews) to a superb, estimated $211 million.
What are ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’s box office achievements?
The new ‘Deadpool’ outing was helped –– not that you’d know it from the spoilery promotional materials put out by Disney/Marvel –– by excited fans heading to see it before the movie’s various secrets could be spilled online.
That stratospheric $211 million domestic launch makes it the biggest R-rated opening weekend in history ––pushing past the original ‘Deadpool’, in fact, which launched to $132 million back in 2016. And in more general terms, it’s the eighth-best debut of all time on the domestic side.
Globally, the movie also performed beyond expectations. Scoring a coveted China release, ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ opened almost simultaneously worldwide and ended the weekend with $444 million as its global tally.
Marvel boss Kevin Feige applauded the success of the film Saturday night at the San Diego Comic-Con, where a choir belted out “Like a Prayer” (as used in the movie) while Deadpool-themed dancers performed in the aisles. Feige announced that the success of the MCU’s latest movie had pushed Marvel Studio’s cinematic tally to $30 billion –– not bad for 16 years’ worth of releases.
Clearly, audiences wanted more from the Merc with a Mouth.
Related Article: Movie Review: 'Deadpool & Wolverine'
How did the box office competition fare?
Sensibly, no studio put out a wide release to compete with Marvel’s latest behemoth, which took over many screens domestically (4,210 to be exact) and nabbed the lion’s share of headlines.
Last week’s champion, ‘Twisters’, dropped 57% for a $35.5 million second weekend, which is still a success. It has so far earned $154.9 million domestically.
‘Despicable Me 4’ also continued to do solid business, making $14.2 million in its fourth weekend for a $290.9 million domestic total.
And let’s not forget that Disney is already having a good year, with Pixar sequel ‘Inside Out 2’ continuing to bring in families, to the tune of $8.3 million for its seventh weekend. The animated movie has so far made $613.4 million domestically and more than $1.46 billion globally.
Will there be a ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ sequel?
We’re fairly sure that idea is already bubbling away among executives at Disney, but unless Reynolds and Jackman feel they have a good idea, we doubt it’ll happen soon, if at all. There’s every chance the duo could show up in other Marvel movies.
Other Movies and TV Shows Similar to ‘Deadpool and Wolverine':
- 'X-Men' (1992 - 1997)
- 'X-Men' (2000)
- 'X2' (2003)
- 'Daredevil' (2003)
- 'Elektra' (2005)
- 'Fantastic Four' (2005)
- 'X-Men: The Last Stand' (2006)
- 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer' (2007)
- 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' (2009)
- 'X-Men: First Class' (2011)
- 'Real Steel' (2011)
- 'The Wolverine' (2013)
- 'X-Men: Days of Future Past' (2014)
- 'X-Men: Apocalypse' (2016)
- ‘Deadpool' (2016)
- 'Logan' (2017)
- ‘Deadpool 2' (2018)
- 'Once Upon a Deadpool' (2018)
- 'Free Guy' (2021)
- 'The Adam Project' (2022)
- 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness' (2022)
- 'Ms. Marvel' (2022)
- 'The Marvels' (2023)
- 'X-Men '97' (2024)