Deadpool Pulls in $135 Million for Opening Weekend
Deadpool is not just beating its box office expectation and predictions. It’s downright murdering them, Merc With a Mouth style. Box Office Mojo reports that the new comic book “antihero” movie pulled in an estimated $135 million for its opening weekend. Not only that, the film has pulled in an additional $125 million for its overseas receipts for a worldwide total of $260 million. Many expected Deadpool would do well based off its strong marketing campaign and positive buzz, but few if anyone imagined numbers this huge.
This is the highest opening for a comic book movie that’s the first in a series since The Avengers. Despite an R-rating, the film had a higher opening than every single movie in the X-Men franchise, all of which were rated PG-13. Based off the four-day holiday weekend, Deadpool is expected to finish with about $150 million for its four-day opening. This is the highest opening weekend for any film in the month of February, topping Fifty Shades of Grey’s $85 million (and also $93 million for the four-day holiday weekend). In short, Deadpool performed above and beyond anyone’s box office expectations. Not to mention, the film did quite well with critics, earning a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer score of 84 percent.
Since the film was made for a budget of about only $58 million, that means the return on investment and profit of Deadpool will be much higher than probably what Warner Bros. can expect for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. This bodes very well for the future of the Deadpool franchise later on. The film was originally announced after X-Men Origins: Wolverine way back in 2009. That aforementioned film’s take on Deadpool was widely hated and maligned by fans. This film took almost seven years to finally get made, and it seems it was well worth the wait for many fans.
Who would have thought after all these years, Deadpool would star in a popular R-rated movie that was faithful to the spirit of the character and comics and would be such a huge blockbuster smash? Due to this film’s popularity, maybe a crossover film with Deadpool and Wolverine could become more feasible, or this will fast-track a possible X-Force movie. Deadpool has been an X-Force member on a team led by Wolverine in the past, which would be interesting.