There was never any doubt that Shawn Levy’s Deadpool & Wolverine was going to win the box office crown in its opening weekend. Not only has Marvel Studios never had a blockbuster open in second place, but it stands out as the only MCU movie that’s being released in 2024. The only real question in the air was in regard to its ceiling: given that the film sports an R-rating from the MPA, would it be possible for it to perform as well as the franchise’s biggest titles?
As it turns out, the answer is a resounding “yes.” The blockbuster had a stunning, record-breaking debut not only by general industry standards, but by MCU standards. Check out the full Top 10 below and join me after for analysis.
| TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Deadpool & Wolverine* | $205,000,000 | $205,000,000 | N/A | 4,210 |
| 2. Twisters | $35,300,000 | $154,931,000 | 1 | 4,170 |
| 3. Despicable Me 4 | $14,200,000 | $290,972,000 | 2 | 3,610 |
| 4. Inside Out 2 | $8,300,000 | $613,406,731 | 3 | 3,150 |
| 5. Longlegs | $6,765,000 | $58,618,928 | 4 | 2,730 |
| 6. A Quiet Place: Day One | $3,025,000 | $134,229,000 | 5 | 1,932 |
| 7. Bad Boys: Ride Or Die | $1,275,000 | $191,743,000 | 7 | 1,006 |
| 8. The Fabulous Four* | $1,010,614 | $1,010,614 | N/A | 1,045 |
| 9. Fly Me To The Moon | $750,000 | $19,110,000 | 6 | 1,314 |
| 10. MaXXXine | $231,820 | $14,676,260 | 8 | 1,038 |
Deadpool & Wolverine Has The Biggest Opening Weekend Ever For An R-Rated Movie
The Deadpool franchise has had complete ownership of records pertaining to R-rated opening weekends for quite a long time now. Tim Miller‘s Deadpool set the high water mark in 2016 when it made $132.4 million in its first three days of release, and while David Leitch’s Deadpool 2 in 2018 wasn’t quite able to match that success, it nestled into second place nicely earning $125.7 million (Andy Muschietti’s IT from 2017 sitting right behind it, having made $123.4 million in its debut).
As you can see in the chart above (with numbers via The Numbers), Deadpool & Wolverine had no issue breaking those existing record numbers – with ticket sales totaling $205 million . The new film is only the second movie since theater closings during the COVID-19 pandemic to earn more than $200 million in its opening weekend (the other being Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: No Way Home, which brought in $260.1 million back in December 2021), and obviously it now holds the record as the biggest premiere of 2024.
There has been a lot of hype building in the last few months, with many suggesting that Deadpool & Wolverine would be the film that it would be the title that would reverse Marvel Studios’ descending fortunes of late, and while the movie got a bit of a mixed-positive response from critics in the days before release, audiences are loving it – as evidenced by the “A” grade delivered from CinemaScore surveys. All signs point to the blockbuster having long legs as we get deeper into summer.
The opening weekend success of Deadpool & Wolverine is not just huge in the context of the post-2021 box office, as the film to a fast start even when you consider the full 16-year history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The $205 million that the superhero comedy made now stands as the fifth biggest ever for the franchise – the title sitting just behind Joss Whedon‘s The Avengers ($207.4 million) and just ahead of Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther ($202 million). It’s pretty clear that the “Restricted” rating was not a hinderance when it came to getting butts in seats – and it may have actually been a special draw given its novelty in the historically family-friendly canon.
I’ve only been discussing the domestic performance of Deadpool & Wolverine thus far, and the truth is that the picture only gets rosier when one takes into consideration ticket sales from overseas. In foreign territories, the movie has thus far grossed $233.3 million, which brings its global total so far up to $438.3 million. After just a few days, it’s already the 28th biggest film in the MCU canon, having outgrossed all three of the franchise’s 2021 releases, Joe Johnston‘s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Louis Letterier’s The Incredible Hulk, and Nia Da Costa’s The Marvels.
As far as the record books regarding R-rated movies performing worldwide, Deadpool & Wolverine is already in the Top 30, and it’s obviously going to climb fast. Todd Phillips‘ Joker presently sits in the number one spot, being the only R-rated movie to earn over $1 billion globally, but just last year, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer took over second place, having made $977 million before the end of its theatrical run around the globe.
The film is expected to repeat at the top of the box office with a slim weekend-to-weekend drop, and domestically, it has a very good chance of sticking around in the Top 5 for all of August.
With The Spotlight Abruptly Shifted, Twisters Has A Tough Second Weekend At The Box Office
As I noted in my box office column last week, this year has some notable titles co-existing in the marketplace with other notable titles. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two and Mike Mitchell’s Kung Fu Panda 4 came out in back-to-back weekends and each found success, and we saw a repeat of that dynamic last month with Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah’s Bad Boys: Ride Or Die and Kelsey Mann’s Inside Out 2.
Sadly, a comparable situation is not playing out with Deadpool & Wolverine and Lee Isaac Chung’s Twisters. There is evidently a bit too much overlap in the target demographics for the two titles, and thus, the success of the former has meant diminishing returns for the latter.
Twisters was the big titles everyone was talking about last Sunday, with the film making $81.3 million before the end of its first three days in cinemas, but the spotlight is gone, and ticket sales fell 57 percent weekend-to-weekend. The disaster feature starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glenn Powell added $35.3 million to its coffers domestically, bringing its haul to date from the United States and Canada to $154.9 million. To date, the film has made $221.2 million worldwide, which is good enough for fifteenth place thus far in 2024.
As noted earlier, there is every expectation that Deadpool & Wolverine will repeat at the top of the box office next week, but M. Night Shyamalan‘s Trap starring Josh Hartnett and Carlos Saldanha’s Harold And The Purple Crayon starring Zachary Levi are going into wide release and should mix up the Top 10 a bit. Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday to see how everything shakes out, and check out our 2024 Movie Release Calendar to discover all of the titles heading to theaters and streaming in the weeks and months ahead.