The Merc with the Mouth is back on the big screen — and he’s a marvel.
Directed by Shawn Levy in close collaboration with franchise mastermind and star Ryan Reynolds, opened to a record-shattering $211 million at the domestic box office, landing the sixth-biggest opening of all time for any film and by far the biggest launch for an R-rated film, according to final numbers. That’s up from Sunday’s estimate of $205 million, which would have made it the eighth-biggest opening of all time. The first Deadpool was the previous R-rated record-holder at $133.7 million. The jump from $205 million to $211 million is a big one and underscores how the movie is out-pacing all modeling (put another way, Sunday traffic was far bigger than expected).
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Deadpool 3 also shattered records for an R-rated pic on a global scale, opening to $233.1 million internationally from 55 materials markets for a worldwide start of $441.1 million, up from Sunday’s estimate of $438.3 million.
Among additional records domestically, the film is the top opening ever for Reynolds, Levy and co-lead Hugh Jackman and the fourth-biggest superhero launch. It’s also the top July opening, as well as the biggest launch since Spider-Man: No Way Home in December 2021, when the Sony/Marvel pic opened to $260.1 million domestically.
Globally, it’s also the biggest opening since No Way Home after passing up Avatar: The Way of the Water ($439 million) on Sunday. And it pushed Marvel’s MCU movies past the $30 billion mark in combined worldwide ticket sales, further solidifying it as the top-grossing franchise in history (that includes movies distributed by Sony, Paramount and Universal, versus just Disney).
Premium format screens contributed 18 percent of the gross, led by $36.5 million in Imax ticket sales, a July and R-rated record for the large-format exhibitor.
Heading into the weekend, the threequel — which returns Reynolds as Wade Wilson/Deadpool and brings Jackman into the franchise as Logan/Wolverine — was expected to open to $160 million to $175 million in North America, which were already huge numbers for a movie with the restricted rating.
Deadpool & Wolverine is the first R-rated movie released by Disney and puts the Kevin Feige-run Marvel on the road to recovery after a rough patch. The movie’s performance was fueled by strong reviews, an A CinemaScore, near-perfect exit scores and 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.
The pic skewed male, or 63 percent, as most superhero films do. One difference in terms of demos between this and past Deadpool films was that it played to a more ethnically diverse audience. White moviegoers made up 43 percent of ticket buyers, followed by Latino moviegoers (30 percent), Black moviegoers (13 percent), Asian moviegoers (9 percent) and Native American/Others (5 percent), according to weighted PostTrak data. In terms of key stats, the R-rated movie showed strength across all age groups, even the under-17 crowd.
Overseas, China led all foreign markets with $24 million, which is a solid showing for a Hollywood film braving tough conditions at the China box office. (Once a boon for Western studios, China has become far less important in terms of whether a film is deemed successful overall.) The pic came in well ahead of the previous two Deadpool films in almost all markets. The U.K. turned in a hefty $22.1 million, followed by Mexico with $18.7 million, Australia with $13 million and Germany and India with $10 million each.
The first Deadpool made history when opening to $133.7 million domestically in February 2016, 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.
Feige’s Marvel took over the irreverent Deadpool franchise when Marvel’s parent company Disney swallowed up 20th Century Fox, which had rights to the X-Men universe of characters.
Deadpool 3 wasn’t the only headline for Disney’s film empire at the box office this weekend. Pixar’s Inside Out 2 — already the biggest animated film of all time worldwide — passed up fellow Pixar title Incredibles 2 in North America to become the biggest animated film of all time domestically, with a cume of $613.4 million. Its worldwide tally is now $1.5 billion.
While Deadpool 3 created its own tornado at the box office, Twisters managed to withstand the storm. The Amblin Entertainment film fell 57 percent in its second weekend — the decline could have been far worse — to $36 million for a 10-day domestic total of $155.6 million. It placed No. 2 domestically. Overseas, it added another $11.1 million from 56 markets for a foreign tally of $66.3 million and $221.9 million globally. Universal is handling domestic distribution duties, while Warner Bros. has overseas duties.
Universal and Illumination’s Despicable Me 4 held at third place with $14.5 million for a domestic tally of $290.9 million. It turned in another $37.6 million from 80 markets for a foreign haul of $386.7 million and $677.7 million.
Inside Out 2 came in fourth, followed by Neon’s Longlegs in fifth place. The hit indie horror pic also made box office history in becoming Neon’s biggest film ever with $58.6 million in domestic ticket sales after earning another $6.8 million this weekend (the pic continues to grow in screen count based on demand). The crown previously belonged to Neon’s Oscar-winning Parasite, which grossed $53.4 million.
July 29, 8 a.m.: Updated with final numbers.
This story was originally. published July 28 at 8:23 a.m.
