‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ has made its way into the top 10 releases of all time and has taken the Marvel franchise to a new record, reaching 30 billion dollars (about 27.7 billion euros) in worldwide revenue.
They may have had some difficult years after ‘Endgame’, but it looks like Marvel is getting its mojo back. At least at the box office.
‘Deadpool and Wolverine’, the studio’s only release for 2024, has grossed an astonishing $205 million (about €189 million) in its first weekend in North American theaters, according to its own estimates. The film has broken the box office record for movies with an R rating, which until now was held by the first installment of Deadpool (122 million euros), and has been placed among the ten highest grossing movies of all time.
Including international screenings, where it has amassed more than an additional €215 million in 52 markets, ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ faces a global opening of more than €405 million, the largest global opening since ‘Avatar: The Sense of Water‘ (406 million euros).
success is an important moment for Marvelwhich has had several high-profile disappointments lately (most notably with ‘The Marvels,’ which opened to a Marvel Cinematic Universe low of €43 million last November).
The big push at the box office has also propelled the Marvel franchise to a new record, reaching the mark of 27.7 billion euros in global collection with the world premiere of the third ‘Deadpool’ movie. This makes the Marvel universe and its 34 titles the highest-grossing film franchise of all time.
In the best domestic opening weekends in history, ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ occupies eighth place between ‘The Avengers’ (191 million euros) and ‘Black Panther’ (187 million euros).
It is, by far, the biggest opening of the year, displacing ‘From the Reverse 2‘ from Disney (142 million euros) and ‘Dune: Part Two’ (76 million euros), as well as the highest number of tickets sold for a film in its opening weekend since the release of Barbie (150 million euros) last July.
The best domestic opening of all time still firmly belongs to ‘Avengers: Endgame’, with 330 million euros. It is followed by ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ (240 million euros), ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ (238 million euros), ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ (229 million euros) and ‘ Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ (203 million euros).
In our review of ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ we said: “Will (‘Deadpool and Wolverine’) save the Marvel universe? Probably not. It’s not as subversive as you think. Unless Marvel decides to use ‘Deadpool & Lobezno‘ as inflection point within Marvel to correct course and finally emerge from the convoluted dramatic dead end that is the Multiverse Saga, then perhaps our hero could still be the “Marvel Jesus.” Outside of that improbable hypothesis, ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ remains a corporate merger to please the public that feels conceptually bold but needed more genuine irreverence and uniqueness.”
