Deadpool & Wolverine breaks a major box office record
Is Joker about to be unseated as the top-earning R-rated movie?
Perhaps superhero movies aren’t quite as dead as some say. Deadpool & Wolverine did major business over its first weekend in cinemas, breaking a key record.
The film’s $205 million US box office takings make Deadpool & Wolverine comfortably the highest-grossing R-rated movie to date over its opening weekend.
The current number one R-rated all-timer for cinema earnings, Joker, made less than half of this new record on its first weekend, with a $96 million domestic gross.
This new flick also beats the first two Deadpool movies. The first made $132 million over its opening weekend, the second $125 million.
Taking worldwide ticket sales into account, Deadpool & Wolverine has already raked-in a stunning $438.3 million.
Are we well on our way to a billion dollar epic?
It looks that way. And the only potential road bump is Deadpool & Wolverine may not have the sort of electric word of mouth effect of Joker. Its lifetime gross was $1.07 billion: the next target to smash.
Deadpool & Wolverine's production budget is estimated at $200 million, but no doubt an absolute fortune was spent on marketing to add to these raw movie-making costs.
Still, Deadpool & Wolverine is still comfortably the most successful non-Spider-Man Marvel movie since the end of the Thanos era.
The Spider-Man films haven’t really suffered from the sense of decline currently plaguing the rest of the MCU. 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home made a stonking $260 million over its first weekend in the US, and went on to make $1.9 billion.
Deadpool & Wolverine is towards the higher end of pre-release estimates, with the lower bounds around $165 million.
The film currently sits at a respectable 79% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes, although as we saw in our Deadpool & Wolverine review round-up, the scores really are all over the place.
Some critics say it’s a cynical corporate exercise. Others are just happy to see Hugh Jackman return as Wolverine, and to laugh along to Deadpool’s usual fourth-wall-breaking antics.
This is the second big box office record we’ve seen smashed recently. Last week, Inside Out 2 overtook The Super Mario Bros. Movie to become the highest-grossing animated film ever.
It currently sits at $1.5 billion in takings, and is still present in plenty of screens.
What's news for the MCU? Its next big movie is Captain America: Brave New World, due in cinemas on February 14, 2025.