Deadpool & Wolverine Now the Biggest R-Rated Movie Worldwide, Sorry Scott

Believe it or not, before 2016, only one R-rated movie in history had cracked $700+ million worldwide. That honor belonged to *The Matrix Reloaded,* a rarity among features folks only aged 17 and older could see alone. Global R-rated blockbusters were so scarce that, before the 2010s began, *Troy* was technically the fifth-biggest R-rated movie globally! Only 16 pre-2010 movies in history grossed $400+ million worldwide, a signal to Hollywood that such titles (in theory) had limited pull globally. The perception was that both domestic and global moviegoers preferred all-ages projects with minimal sex, restrained language, and cartoonish violence. That status quo got upended when the original *Deadpool* became the biggest R-rated movie of all-time worldwide in 2016. No longer did sequels to popular 1999 movies have a monopoly on global R-rated box office success!

A steady stream of further global R-rated blockbusters like *It,* *Deadpool 2,* *Logan,* and *Oppenheimer* followed, culminating in *Joker* becoming the first R-rated movie to ever secure $1+ billion worldwide in 2019. Everything’s come full circle now, thanks to *Deadpool & Wolverine* taking home the worldwide box office crown for an R-rated movie. Currently, this massive hit has amassed $1.085 billion compared to *Joker’s* $1.064 billion gross. *Deadpool & Wolverine* is nowhere near done with its global box office run (it’s likely got at least another $110 million in the tank domestically), so expect it to keep on chugging and leaving all other R-rated films in the dust globally.

Currently, *Deadpool & Wolverine* is the 36th-biggest movie ever worldwide, just behind the $1.104 billion gross of *Transformers: Age of Extinction.* It’ll surpass that Michael Bay movie sometime this weekend. The $1.150 billion gross should get shattered by this particular title by the start of next week. Right now, the first-ever R-rated Marvel Studios release is the 17th biggest Walt Disney Pictures release in history. It has no chance of surpassing *Inside Out 2’s* $1.595 billion gross to become Disney’s biggest 2024 film worldwide, but hey, that’s a high bar for any film to beat. *Deadpool & Wolverine* is also currently the 11th biggest Marvel Studios release in history.

How high can it go globally? I’d wager we’re looking at a final total in the $1.275-1.3 billion range. On the low end, that would mean *Deadpool & Wolverine* edges out *Frozen’s* $1.273 billion gross to become the 22nd biggest movie ever globally. That would be enough to make this raunchy comedy the seventh-biggest Marvel Cinematic Universe feature ever globally, dethroning *Iron Man 3* for that slot. Needless to say, that projected $1.275 billion finish (on the low end) would also trample the $781.9 million worldwide gross of the first *Deadpool* by an eye-popping 63%.

Returning to the domain of R-rated movies, even after Hollywood’s learned to stop worrying and embrace the R-rated tentpole, *Deadpool & Wolverine’s* worldwide gross leaves most other R-rated features in the dust. There are still only 20 R-rated motion pictures in history (including Deadpool & Wolverine!) that have exceeded $500 million worldwide. To put things into perspective, Deadpool & Wolverine is now guaranteed to more than double the $622.3 million worldwide haul of *The Passion of the Christ* and *Logan’s* $614.2 million worldwide gross! Even with the Marvel Studios logo attached to its marketing materials, *Deadpool & Wolverine* is obliterating all norms for R-rated blockbusters.

Could anything ever dethrone this kind of once-in-a-lifetime box office performance for the title of biggest R-rated movie worldwide? *Joker: Folie a Deux* has a shot at such an achievement, but it’ll need to really leapfrog past its predecessor’s global sum to get there. Beyond that, it’s hard to see any other R-rated films on the immediate horizon that could dethrone *Deadpool & Wolverine*. This one’s gonna hold onto this box office record for a long while.

One last thing about this achievement: go take a look at where *Deadpool & Wolverine’s* worldwide box office haul falls in director Shawn Levy’s filmography. Prior to 2024, Levy only had one movie (*Night at the Museum*) that cracked $500+ million globally. Now he’s behind the camera on the biggest R-rated movie in history. This film’s already done nearly ten times the worldwide gross of Levy’s *Just Married* from 2003 and nearly surpassed the lifetime gross of his 2002 feature *Big Fat Liar* just in its domestic Thursday night grosses alone. As R-rated films in general can attest, one global hit can make all the difference in the world…