Deadpool & Wolverine stars Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, along with director Shawn Levy, have received their membership cards to the billion-dollar box office club.
Marvel Studios and Disney’s summer blockbuster achieved the feat on Saturday, and will finish the weekend with an estimated $1.029 billion in global ticket sales, including $494.3 million domestically and $535.2 million overseas.
The audacious third outing in the Deadpool series that began its life at 20th Century Fox is a huge win for franchise mastermind Ryan Reynolds, as well as for Marvel Studios and the superhero genre in general. It’s the first superhero movie to cross $1 billion since Sony and Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home two and a half years ago, and the first Marvel/Disney MCU pic to cross the $1 billion threshold since Avengers: Endgame in 2019.
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Moreover, Deadpool & Wolverine is just days away from passing up Warner Bros. and Todd Phillips’ Joker ($1.079 billion) and becoming the top-grossing R-rated film of all time at the global box office, not adjusted for inflation. It now ranks No. 2 after passing up Oppenheimer. In North America, it already holds the R-rated record.
Moreover, it tied with The Avengers to become the fourth-fastest MCU title to speed past $1 billion (19 days). Avengers: Endgame tops the list (5 days), followed by Avengers: Infinity War (11 days) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (12 days).
Deadpool & Wolverine is the 55th movie to clear the $1 billion mark; the 31st Disney title to do so (that includes three 20th Century Fox films inherited in the larger Disney-Fox merger); and the 11th MCU movie, including two Sony Spider-Man films, Homecoming and No Way Home.
Other notable factoids: it’s the second film of the year so far to join the billion-dollar club after sister Disney/Pixar film Inside Out 2, which now tops the chart of the top-grossing animated film of all time with nearly $1.6 billion in global ticket sales. Disney is the only studio to ever deliver back-to-back $1 billion films in a given year.
Deadpool & Wolverine has smashed one record after another since debuting over the July 26-28 weekend, including quickly passing up the entire lifetime runs of the first two Deadpool films, both domestically and globally, after just two weekends in theaters. Deadpool‘s domestic earnings were $363.1 million for a global total of $782.6 worldwide; the second film’s domestic haul was $318.5 million for a worldwide total of $734.5 million.
As far as how high it can ultimately climb, most are predicting that the pic will land at between $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion, giving credence to Reynold’s theory and that he and the filmmakers succeeded in making the first four-quadrant, R-rated film.
