‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Shatter Numerous Records

We called it months ago. Everyone predicted it. It’s the least surprising success of 2024 so far. But still, seeing that weekend gross for Deadpool & Wolverine is pretty eye-watering in its success. Marvel Studios’ first R-rated film and the next step in Ryan Reynolds’ reign as the current King of Hollywood (sorry, Dwayne Johnson) brought in a lot of money. Like, a veritable f*ckton of it. How much? Try $205 million from 4,210 theatres. That’s a per-cinema average of $48,693.

As Deadline noted, that also means it’s broken a ton of box office records, including the highest R-rated opening of all time (both domestic and worldwide), the biggest global opening since Avatar: The Way of Water, the 8th highest opening domestic weekend of all time, and the 34th consecutive MCU release to debut #1 at the domestic box office. Worldwide, it’s grossed $438.3 million, which makes it the eighth highest-grossing movie of the year. A billion-dollar gross is going to happen very quickly. Inside Out 2 is currently at $1.5 billion worldwide and still playing in theatres. Can it surpass that Disney hit? Screw it, I’ll say yes.

And also to the surprise of literally nobody, no other major films were released this past weekend. Would you want to take that gamble? Counterprogramming just doesn’t work with juggernauts like this. The closest we got was the comedy The Fabulous Four, which debuted at number eight with just over $1 million from 1,045 theatres, but that’s less a case of offering audiences an alternative and more a distributor trying to dump a movie and move on as quickly as possible.

In limited releases: The Indian crime thriller Raayan earned $453,000 from 133 locations, and the coming-of-age story Dìdi made $200,000 from five theatres.

There are some interesting tidbits to be gleamed in an otherwise predictable weekend. The horror Longlegs has now hit over $58 million domestically, making it the highest-grossing film ever for distributor Neon. That puts it WAY ahead of A24’s horror offering of the season, MaXXXine, which has $14.6 million to its name in North America. Bad Boys: Ride or Die is currently at $191.7 million domestically, which puts it almost $20 million ahead of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, even though that blockbuster had a four-week head start. Fly Me to the Moon is on track to being one of 2024’s biggest flops, with its domestic total currently at $19.1 million on a $100 million budget.

This coming week sees the release of M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap and Zachary Levi’s Harold and the Purple Crayon.

Source: Deadline, Box Office Mojo