Just three days after its release, Disney's epic “Deadpool & Wolverine” has become one of the highest-grossing films of the year.
The superhero sequel, which reunites Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman as their comic book characters, has grossed $233 million at the international box office and $438 million worldwide. “Deadpool & Wolverine” trails “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 global ticket sales through 2024.
The film will easily soar up the worldwide charts in the coming weeks, but box office analysts are assessing whether the third “Deadpool” installment has enough momentum to cross the $1 billion mark. Even at this early stage of its box office run, it seems safe to predict it will reach that benchmark. However, only one R-rated film in history — 2019’s “Joker” with $1.07 billion worldwide — has ever joined the coveted $1 billion club. At the time of their release, 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” had the biggest global opening of 2024 since “Avatar: The Way of Water” ($439 million in comparable markets). Outside the U.S. and Canada, the biggest markets were China ($24 million), the U.K. ($22.1 million), Mexico ($18.7 million), Australia ($13 million), Germany ($10 million), Brazil ($10 million) and India ($10 million). Overall, the ticket sales rank as the biggest international launch for an R-rated Hollywood film, surpassing “Joker”’s $147 million debut based on current exchange rates.
Audiences chose to see “Deadpool & Wolverine” on the biggest and brightest screens, with Imax taking in $36.5 million worldwide. It’s the eighth-biggest Imax debut behind 2021’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which grossed $37.1 million.
Over the weekend, Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe became the first film franchise ever to surpass $30 billion at the global box office. It’s Hollywood’s most prolific franchise, with 34 installments spanning 15 years. And while not all of them have been box office winners (Eternals, The Marvels, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, we’re talking about you), the Marvel Cinematic Universe remains a rare breed of commercially attractive franchise.
“Deadpool & Wolverine” is the first R-rated film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the first to feature characters from comic books previously licensed to 20th Century Fox. Directed by Shawn Levy, the film follows superhero Wade Wilson aka Deadpool aka the Merc With a Mouth as he leaves behind his mercenary life to become a used car salesman. But all that changes when he is recruited by the Time Variance Authority—an organization that exists outside of time and space to monitor the multiverse—to assist in a new mission. He teams up with a reluctant Wolverine to save the Merc’s homeworld and change the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
