Deadpool is living up to his self-appointed moniker as Marvel Jesus.
Disney’s comic book sequel “Deadpool & Wolverine” has generated $1.086 billion at the global box office after 23 days of release, overtaking 2019’s “Joker” ($1.078 billion) as the highest grossing R-rated movie in history.
Marvel’s save-the-universe adventure landed in theaters on July 26, collecting a mighty $211 million in its domestic debut to rank as the sixth-biggest opening weekend of all time. Since then, “Deadpool & Wolverine” has remained a massive draw with $516 million in North America and $568 million internationally. It surpassed the entire theatrical runs of its predecessors — 2016’s “Deadpool” with $783 million and 2018’s “Deadpool 2” with $786 million after just two weeks in theaters. It’s now the second blockbuster of 2024 (following Disney’s Pixar smash “Inside Out 2” with $1.558 billion) and second R-rated movie ever to join the coveted billion-dollar club.
“Thanks for making Marvel Studios’ first R-rated movie the biggest of all time,” Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said in a statement. “It’s fantastic to see that audiences are loving this movie as much as we all loved making it. All those conversations were worth it!”
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The studio chief is cheekily referring to a line in the movie where Deadpool jokes that Feige said cocaine was the only thing off-limits. In real life, Feige insists he didn’t issue that edict.
“We were open to anything,” Feige told Variety for a cover story in July. “After about the 28th time you do a joke, sometimes it’s not as funny. Maybe I’m slightly prudish when it comes to drug use, but I was like, ‘Eh, it’s not that funny.’ Ryan, of course, stores everything in his brain for later use as excellent jokes. And he added it to the script.”
“Deadpool & Wolverine,” starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman as their antihero alter egos, is notable because the film ushers the comic book characters that were previously licensed to 20th Century Fox into Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s the first R-rated movie in the MCU.
“It’s never rated R just to be rated R,” Reynolds told Variety prior to the film’s release. “A lot of it is just the character. The character is very crass. His brain is like a half-eaten omelet inside the skull of a 7-year-old.”
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Ticket sales have been stratospheric because Reynolds and director Shawn Levy brought Jackman’s gruff mutant Logan out of retirement and assembled a who’s who of Fox-era heroes, including Jennifer Garner as Elektra, Chris Evans as Human Torch from “Fantastic Four,” Wesley Snipes as Blade, to accompany Deadpool and Wolverine on a timeline-salvaging mission. So, die-hard fans opted to see the movie early and often to avoid plot twists, major cameos and other spoilers.
