©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection
“Deadpool & Wolverine,” a comic book adventure that combines two of Marvel’s most popular characters, is turbocharging the box office.
Disney’s superhero sequel grossed $205 million in its opening weekend, surpassing 2018’s “Black Panther” ($202 million) and 2015’s “Jurassic World” ($208 million) and 2012’s “The Avengers” and 2018’s “Black Panther.” ” ranked as the eighth-best debut ahead of ($207 million). Only nine films in Hollywood history have crossed the $200 million mark in their opening weekends. Ticket sales easily surpassed 2016’s “Deadpool” ($132 million) to set the record for the biggest R-rated opening weekend ever. 2018’s sequel “Deadpool 2” is the third-biggest R-rated debut with $125 million. By many measures of the new installment, “Deadpool & Wolverine” is the biggest opener of the year, ahead of another Disney film, Pixar sequel “Inside Out 2” ($155 million debut).
Internationally, “Deadpool & Wolverine” took in $233.3 million for $438 million. After three days of release, the film has already become the sixth highest grosser of 2024.
Over the weekend, the third “Deadpool” adventure (and the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe headlined by comic book characters licensed before 20th Century Fox) was projected to gross between $160 million and $170 million. Those estimates were soon discredited. That’s because die-hard fans want to be among the first to see the film, pushing the Shawn Levy-directed tentpole to stratospheric box office heights and avoiding plot twists, major cameos and other spoilers. On Friday alone, “Deadpool & Wolverine” took in $96 million, more than most 2024 movies earned in their entire opening weekends.
“Deadpool & Wolverine,” starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, was the hit Marvel needed. After this weekend, the MCU became the first film franchise to surpass $30 billion worldwide. While the comic book behemoth has delivered an unprecedented 33 blockbusters in 15 years, recent entries like “Eternals,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “The Marvels” have misfired at the box office. Part of the problem is that since the launch of the Disney+ streaming service, the studio has inundated audiences with countless spinoffs, sequels and TV series on the big and small screen. In response, Disney CEO Bob Iger says the MCU is trying to reduce its output. Due to last year’s strike and other delays, “Deadpool & Wolverine” is 2024’s lone Marvel Studios movie — the first since 2012’s “The Avengers.”
“The pandemic hasn’t slowed down the biggest superhero titles,” says David A. Cross of the film consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research, which saw “Spider-Man: No Way Home” ($1.91 billion), “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness” ($956 million) ), “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” ($859 million) and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” ($846 million). Still, Gross adds, “less established and newer films have struggled.” So, it’s a good thing the MCU has familiar names on its upcoming callsheets. Over the weekend, the studio announced at Comic Con that “Iron Man” star Robert Downey Jr. will return to play villain Victor Van Doom in 2026’s “Avengers: Doomsday.”
The summer also marks a return to form for Disney, which has long dominated Hollywood studios, but has been stymied by a slew of underwhelming hits in 2023, including “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” “The Haunted Mansion,” and “”. Like.” So far in 2024, “Inside Out 2” has surpassed “Frozen II” to become the highest-grossing animated film in history with $1.5 billion, while “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” is approaching $400 million worldwide. “Alien: Romulus August could deliver another win for the Magic Kingdom.
With theaters devoting nearly every auditorium to “Deadpool & Wolverine,” last weekend’s champion “Twisters” was relegated to second place. The disaster epic, starring Glenn Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Anthony Ramos, dropped 57% from its debut and still brought in a solid $35.3 million. To date, “Twisters” has grossed $154.9 million in North America and $221 million worldwide.
Elsewhere, holdover titles topped the box office charts. No. 3, Universal and Illumination’s “Despicable Me 4” added $14.2 million in its fourth weekend of release. So far, the animated sequel has grossed $290.9 million domestically and $677 million worldwide. “Inside Out 2” finished fourth with $8.3 million in its seventh outing, bringing its domestic tally to $613.4 million.
Neon’s horror sleeper hit “Longlegs” finished fifth with $6.7 million, pushing its North American total to $58 million. It now ranks as Neon’s highest-grossing film, surpassing Oscar winner “Parasite” with $53.36 million in North America.
A lot more to come…
