Last year was kind of a mixed bag for superheroes at the box office, with many of them underperforming in some way. That’s not the case for 2024, as Deadpool & Wolverine has already shattered some records in its opening weekend and is more than ready to kill any ideas that the superhero genre was on its last legs in 2023.
Domestically, the MCU’s mutant teamup flick opened to $205 million, going well past initial projections of $160-$170 million. It’s now the eighth-biggest opening of all time and dethroned the original Deadpool for biggest R-rated launch. Other records broken include biggest domestic opening for leading men Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman and director Shawn Levy, the biggest opening for the month of July and 2024 overall, and the fifth-biggest superhero launch, and the biggest launch since Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021. An additional $233.3 million from international markets currently puts it at $438.3 million, the biggest global opening since Avatar: The Way of Water.
With all that laid out, it’s probably going to hit a billion dollars by mid-August, if not next week. Folks love them some Wolverine and Deadpool, further boosted by this being the only MCU movie for 2024 and the littany of guest appearances sprinkled throughout the film. Even if you already saw it, chances are it may warrant a repeat viewing or two just to see what you missed or to be in the moment with the rest of the audience. Marvel was more than happy to tout the movie’s success at SDCC this weekend, where producer Kevin Feige revealed the entire MCU has now blown past the $30 billion mark, becoming the first franchise to do so.
Wolverine and Deadpool is the #1 movie in the world. Thank you ALL! @VancityReynolds @ShawnLevyDirect @MarvStudios pic.twitter.com/FhdspNeWcR
— Hugh Jackman (@RealHughJackman) July 28, 2024
As for everything else, the remaining summer movies of the moment are holding their own pretty well. Disney racked another win with Inside Out 2, now beating out Incredibles 2 to become the biggest animated film domestically at $613.4 million and $1.5 billion worldwide. Twisters has managed to do fairly well at $221.2 million worldwide, with a new domestic total of $155.6 million. Longlegs, which is still playing in just the US, has become Neon’s biggest movie at $58.6 million. To date, it hasn’t picked up an international distributor, but if and when it does, that haul is sure to go up thanks to strong word of mouth.
We’re now jumping into August, which can sometimes be a dead zone for movies. The month kicks off with M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap (August 2), followed by Borderlands and Cuckoo (August 9), and Alien: Romulus on August 16. How well will they be able to stand against the tide of Reynolds and Jackman cursing up a storm and brutalizing each other?
[via The Hollywood Reporter]
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