Deadpool has shattered all box office records. It is a superhero that almost didn’t get made but still managed to decimate all box office records. According to the studio estimates, Deadpool has opened to a phenomenal $150 million from Thursday night to Monday in Canada and the United States. It has been recorded to be the biggest ever box office opening on President’s Day Weekend and also considering an R rated film at any time.
It is much bigger than many superhero hits as Warner Bros. and DC’s Man of Steel, Marvel’s Iron Man 2 along with all of the 20th Century Fox X-Men movies. Meanwhile, overseas, Deadpool managed to collect $150 million from different foreign markets led by Russia, Australia and United Kingdom among others.
Deadpool stars Ryan Reynolds as a super-powered mercenary who is out for revenge. It is a major hit for 21st Century Fox’s 20th Century Fox which was responsible for production and distribution of the film based on a character from Walt Disney Co.’s Marvel Comics.
Deadpool was a spin-off character in Marvel’s X-Men comic book universe and it was made after much trepidation and years of stalled development. This is primarily because the loud-mouthed, ultra-violent character, required a movie with an R rating, an insulting sense of humor directed towards his genre along with a very high death count as well.
As a result, the executives thought that this movie would turn off most PG-13 rated fare like that of The Avengers and it would only appeal to the Comic Con crowd. It was eventually approved after fan excitement over leaked test footage. Meanwhile, Deadpool was budgeted at $58 million which is less than one-third of the cost of most Superhero films.
However, it seems like Deadpool starring Ryan Reynolds has turned into a major blockbuster and has attracted fans that are desperate for something new in their superhero movies. Rest assured that there will definitely be sequels starring Deadpool or the ‘merc with a mouth’ as he is called in the comics.
Meanwhile, two other movies debuted this weekend to unimpressive results. One of them is the romantic comedy “How To Be Single” which stars Rebel Wilson, from Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., managed a soft $20.6 million domestically.
Zoolander 2 featured the return of the dim-witted supermodel that is played by Ben Stiller. It hit the theaters 15 years after the original and then flopped, opening to just $16 million. Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures released it. Deadpool has ripped through box office. The Katana-wielding hero has in Tim Miller’s Fourth Wall Breaking film has smashed all records.
In the process, it has earned nearly 5 times its original budget with a blistering $265 million globally. This is really astonishing for a film which has spent 10 years in development hell. During this time, it searched for a studio which would take the risk on the Merc with a Mouth.
In the meantime, Hollywood has already started looking for explanations which is searching for the magical formula that ensures hundreds more Deadpool movies to release in the future.
What is the formula behind this massive success? It could be the R-rated language and violence, the Meta quality which poked fun at various past superhero installments or did Ryan Reynolds become the newly crowned box office gold.
You can be sure that Studios across La La Land have been putting their minds together and figuring out the strategy over this apparent mystery. James Gunn thinks that all of their conclusions will inevitably be the wrong one.