'Deadpool & Wolverine' has taken a spot in the top 10 openings of all time and taken the Marvel franchise to a new record, hitting the $30 billion global gross mark.
ADVERTISEMENTThey may have had a few rocky years post-Endgame, but Marvel do seem to be getting their mojo back. At the box office, anyway.
Deadpool & Wolverine, the studio’s only theatrical release for 2024, has made a staggering $205 million in its first weekend in North American theaters, according to studio estimates. It shattered the opening record for R-rated films previously held by the first Deadpool film ($132 million) and notched a spot in the top 10 openings of all time.
Including international showings, where it’s racked up an additional $233.3 million from 52 markets, Deadpool & Wolverine is looking at a global opening of over $438.3 million – the biggest global opening since Avatar: The Way of Water ($439 million).
The success is an important moment for Marvel, which has had several high-profile disappointments lately - most notably with The Marvels, which opened to an MCU low of $47 million last November.
The major boost to the box office has also taken the Marvel franchise to a new record, hitting the $30 billion global gross mark with the third Deadpool film’s worldwide opening. This makes the MCU and its 34 titles the highest film franchise of all-time.
In the top domestic opening weekends ever, Deadpool & Wolverine is seated in 8th place between The Avengers ($207.4 million) and Black Panther ($202 million), bumping Avengers: Age of Ultron ($191.3 million) off the top 10.
It’s by far the biggest opening of the year, unseating Disney’s Inside Out 2 ($154.2 million) and Dune: Part Two($82.5 million), as well as the most tickets a movie has sold in its debut weekend since Barbie ($162 million) stormed theatres last July.
The top domestic opening of all time still firmly belongs to Avengers: Endgame with $357.1 million. It’s followed by Spider-Man: No Way Home ($260.1 million), Avengers: Infinity War ($257.6 million), Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($247.9 million) and Star Wars: The Last Jedi ($220 million).
In our review of Deadpool & Wolverine, we said: "Will (Deadpool & Wolverine) save the MCU? Probably not. It’s not as subversive as it thinks it is. Unless Marvel decides to use Deadpool & Wolverine as a pivotal point within the MCU canon to course correct and finally emerge from the convoluted dramatic cul-de-sac that is the Multiverse Saga, then perhaps our motormouthed hero still could be “Marvel Jesus”. Outside of that improbable hypothesis, Deadpool & Wolverine still remains a middling crowd-pleasing corporate merger that feels conceptually audacious but needed more genuine irreverence and uniqueness." Read the full review here.
