We here at Nerdist very much enjoyed Deadpool & Wolverine. We know not everyone does. However, we do know a poop-load of people went to go see the movie opening weekend. In its initial bow, the R-rated comic book movie raked in $211 million, making it the sixth highest grossing opening weekend of all time domestically. Disney owns the all six of the top spots, where D&W now only trails Avengers: Endgame ($357.1M), Spider-Man: No Way Home ($260.1M), Avengers: Infinity War ($257.6M), Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($247.9M), and Star Wars: The Last Jedi ($220M) among the top opening weekends at the box office.
Additionally, the movie broke all kinds of records. It’s the highest-grossing weekend for an R-rated movie in history. With $444.1 million worldwide and $211 million domestic, it handily beats the previous record-older… the first Deadpool in 2016. The first movie had $264M WW in like-for-like markets excluding China, $132.4M domestic, according to Deadline. Deadpool & Wolverine is also now by far the biggest opening weekend for a Ryan Reynolds movie (beating Deadpool), for Hugh Jackman (beating X-Men: The Last Stand in 2006!), and definitely director Shawn Levy. His previous best weekend was the $54 million domestic for 2009’s Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.
You want more? Oh we’ve got more! Deadpool & Wolverine beat The Lion King (the remake one) as the biggest July opening ever. It’s also the 34th consecutive MCU movie to debut at number one. The MCU as a whole has grossed over $30 billion. With a B.
So at any rate, you can say Deadpool & Wolverine has been a big ol’ success. Is this proof the MCU is back? Or is it just proof people love Deadpool, Wolverine, and X-Men-related characters? The world may never know. Until Captain America: Brave New World in February.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.
