Lively-Reynolds Box Office Domination: ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Stays No. 1 With $54M, ‘It Ends With Us’ Soars to Huge $50M

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds have succeeded in creating their own Barbenheimer moment at the box office with their two very different films, Deadpool & Wolverine and It Ends With Us.

Marvel Studios and Disney’s Deadpool & Wolverine — in addition to crossing the $1 billion mark at the global box office on Saturday — stayed atop the North American chart with $54.2 million in its third weekend. The blockbuster, which has obliterated one record after another, finished Sunday with an estimated domestic tally of $494.3 million and $535.2 million overseas for a worldwide haul of $1.029 billion.

The movie is a huge win for Marvel, and there’s more to come. The pic is only days away from passing up Warner Bros.’ Joker to become the top-grossing R-rated film of all time at the worldwide box office (a record it already holds domestically).

Sony’s new female-powered It Ends With Us, starring and produced by Lively, came in a strong second with an estimated $50 million, well ahead of most expectations and serving up Lively’s biggest opening to date as a leading actress.

Overseas, it also impressed in debuting to $30 million from its first 42 markets for a global start of $80 million. When compared to other female-driven titles, It came in more than two times ahead of Anyone But You and four times ahead of Where the Crawdads Sing (both are also Sony titles). Europe turned in a robust $13.5 million, led by $5.7 million from the U.K.. It also performed well in Latin America and parts of the Asia Pacific region, led by Australia ($4.7 million)

Heading into the weekend, the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s runaway best-selling novel was tracking to open to $23 million domestically, although exhibitors thought more along the lines of $40 million to $50 based on presales and social media metrics. The film’s performance, buoyed by an A-CinemaScore and a 95 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, underscores the pent-up demand for a female-targeted film (mixed reviews didn’t appear to hinder the movie).

The combo of the movies is a big win for the August box office, with overall domestic revenue expected to be up 35 percent over the same weekend last year, and even more noteworthy, 19 percent ahead of 2019, the last year before the pandemic. To boot, it is believed to be the first time in history that a pair of August films grossed $50 million or more on the same weekend.

Ticket buyers for It Ends With Us were 84 percent female spread across all adult age groups; 60 percent were between ages 18 and 34, while 33 were age 35 and older. It also has a notable advantage in appealing to an ethnically diverse audience.

It Ends With Us stars Lively as Lily Bloom, a woman who overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life in Boston and fulfill a lifelong dream of opening her own business. A chance meeting with charming neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni) sparks an intense connection, but as the two fall deeply in love, Lily begins to see sides of Ryle that remind her of her parents’ relationship. When Lily’s first love, Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), suddenly reenters her life, her relationship with Ryle is upended, and Lily realizes she must learn to rely on her own strength to make an impossible choice for her future.

It is the first of Hoover’s books to be adapted for the big screen. The film is directed by Baldoni and cost a modest $25 million to produce before marketing.

Some have pitched the dueling Reynolds-Lively movies as a showdown, but the opposite is the case, according to insiders. Reynolds, a marketing savant, and Lively hoped the two very different films would indeed result in a Barbenheimer moment whereby both films become top of mind.

Reynolds and Lively have been supporting each other’s films in major ways, and it may not entirely be a coincidence that they opened so close to each other. It Ends With Us was originally supposed to hit theaters June 21 but was pushed back to Aug. 9. As a producer of the film, Lively likely had some sway when the new date was selected.

Earlier this week, Reynolds posted a humorous Instagram clip of himself, his mother (Tammy Reynolds) and Deadpool & Wolverine co-star Hugh Jackman separately interrogating Sklenar during a recent press day for Lively’s new film.

Jackman and Reynolds — who are besties — also flanked Lively as she walked the pink carpet of It Ends With Us‘ world premiere on Tuesday.

As noted earlier this week, the last time a married couple had their films top the domestic box office was 34 years ago. In 1990, Bruce Willis’ Die Hard 2 stayed atop the chart in its second weekend with $14.5 million, and Demi Moore’s Ghost opened in second place with $12.2 million.

Another new nationwide entry was Lionsgate’s big-budget Borderlands, which bit the dust in opening to $8.8 million, behind already muted projections and despite a star-studded cast including Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack Black, Ariana Greenblatt and Florian Munbteanu. 

Directed by Eli Roth, the video game adaptation — which cost north of $110 million to produce — was roundly panned by critics; audiences felt the same in slapping with a D+ cinemascore. Lionsgate insiders say the studio’s losses will be minimized by selling off international rights.

Also opening wide this weekend, albeit in far fewer cinemas, was specialty horror film Cuckoo. The Neon release started off with $3 million.

Aug. 11, 10 a.m.: Updated with foreign numbers.