Marvel Studios is back.
Director Shawn Levy’s threequel Deadpool & Wolverine delivered up a massive $96 million on Friday at the domestic box office, the sixth-biggest opening day of all time after edging out the final Harrry Potter pic ($91.1 million), not adjusted for inflation.
The Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman superhero pic is assured of scoring the biggest R-rated opening of all time — the first Deadpool is the current crown holder at $133 million. The only question now is just high how it will climb. Disney and Marvel are predicting $195 million to $205 million, something no one thought possible for an R-rated pic. That’s well ahead of pre-opening projections of $160 million to $175 million, which were already huge numbers, and would mark the top openings ever for Reynolds — the mastermind behind the Deadpool franchise — Levy and Jackman.
Deadpool & Wolverine is the first R-rated movie ever released by Disney, Marvel or otherwise, and puts Kevin Feige’s Marvel back in the driver’s seat after a tough patch. It boasts a 97 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, the second-best score ever for a Marvel film behind Sony and Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Friday’s haul includes $38.5 million in previews.
The high-profile Deadpool threequel, which returns Reynolds as Wade Wilson/Deadpool and brings Jackman into the franchise as Logan/Wolverine, is coming in well ahead of tracking in more good news for the summer box office, which has rebounded in a major way after a horrible May.
It’s also doing big business overseas, where its total through Friday was $115.1 million for a global cume of $211.1 mllion.
Deadpool & Wolverine is being buoyed by strong reviews and even stronger audience exits on PostTrack, along with an A CinemaScore and its 97 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Reynolds — also an expert promoter and producer — and his marketing team at Maximum Effort, along with Disney, have been trying to grow the audience by going after women. On Wednesday, Taylor Swift — who is good friends with Reynolds and wife Blake Lively — used her powerful social media sway to post an item endorsing the movie that included a link to buy tickets “if you like to see things that are unspeakably awesome.” Continuing, she sad, “Shout out to Wade Wilson, a.k.a., my god kids’ sperm donor.”
Friday’s audience skewed male, or 66 percent, in keeping with the normal play pattern for a superhero pic, according to PostTrack, but the gender gap could
The first Deadpool made history when opening to $133.7 million domestically in February 2016, the biggest start ever for an R-rated title — a record it still holds — proving that a superhero pic could draw big crowds despite the restrictive rating. A little more than two years later, Deadpool 2 debuted to $125.5 million after earning $18.6 million in previews, the record until now for an R-rated film.
Feige’s Marvel took over the Deadpool franchise when Marvel parent company Disney swallowed up 20th Century Fox, which had rights to the X-Men universe of characters.
More to come.
