After just three days of release, Disney’s Marvel epic “Deadpool & Wolverine” is already one of the highest-grossing releases of the year.
The superhero sequel, which unites Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman as their comic book personas, has generated $233 million at the international box office and $438 million globally. “Deadpool & Wolverine” stands behind only “Inside Out 2” ($1.5 billion), “Dune: Part Two” ($711 million), “Despicable Me 4” ($596 million), “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” ($567.6 million) and “Kung Fu Panda 4” ($545 million) in terms of worldwide ticket sales in 2024.
The film will easily rise on global charts in the coming weeks, but box office analysts are assessing if the third “Deadpool” has the momentum to clear the $1 billion mark. Even this early in its box office run, it seems safe to predict it’ll hit that benchmark. However, only one R-rated movie in history — 2019’s “Joker” with $1.07 billion globally — has joined the coveted billion-dollar club. At the time of their respective releases, 2016’s “Deadpool” with $782 million and 2018’s “Deadpool 2” with $785 million were the highest-grossing R-rated films of all time.
“Deadpool & Wolverine” notched the largest global debut of 2024 and since “Avatar: The Way of Water” ($439 million in comparable markets). Outside of the U.S. and Canada, the biggest markets were China with $24 million, the U.K. with $22.1 million, Mexico with $18.7 million, Australia with $13 million, Germany with $10 million, Brazil with $10 million and India with $10 million. Overall, these ticket sales ranked as the biggest international launch for an R-rated Hollywood film, surpassing “Joker” with $147 million to start based on current exchange rates.
Audiences opted to watch “Deadpool & Wolverine” on the biggest and brightest screens, with Imax accounting for $36.5 million of global revenues. This marks the eighth-biggest Imax debut behind 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” with $37.1 million.
Over the weekend, Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe became the first film franchise ever to cross $30 billion at the global box office. It’s the most prolific series in Hollywood with 34 installments over 15 years. And though not all of them were box office winners (“Eternals,” “The Marvels” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” we’re looking at you), the MCU remains in rarified air in terms of commercial appeal.
“Deadpool & Wolverine” is the first R-rated film in the MCU, as well as the first to be headlined by comic book characters that were previously licensed to 20th Century Fox. Directed by Shawn Levy, the superhero tentpole follows Wade Wilson a.k.a. Deadpool a.k.a. the Merc With a Mouth as he leaves behind the mercenary life to become a used car salesman. But all that changes when he’s recruited by the organization known as the Time Variance Authority — which exists outside of time and space to monitor the multiverse — to help with a new mission. He teams with a reluctant Wolverine to save the Merc’s home universe and change the history of the MCU.
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