The final figures are in for Deadpool & Wolverine's opening weekend and the Marvel Studios threequel ended up exceeding expectations with a staggering $211 million debut at the North American box office. That's $6 million higher than yesterday's $205 million estimates.
With the sixth biggest 3-day opening weekend of all time, the threequel becomes only the ninth movie in history to open north of $200 million.
Perhaps the craziest thing is that Deadpool & Wolverine will surpass Logan's entire $226.3 million run later today; then, in a matter of days, it will sail past Deadpool 2 ($324.6 million), Joker ($335.5 million), and Deadpool ($363.7 million).
$1 billion is surely right around the corner, particularly as early signs point to it becoming the highest-grossing R-Rated movie ever by next Sunday (beating a record held by The Passion of the Christ for over 20 years).
At the worldwide box office, a $211 million 3-day weekend means Deadpool & Wolverine has grossed over $444 million in 5 days. In the UK, it clawed its way to the highest-grossing opening since Barbie last summer. It also broke the record for the biggest opening for a movie rated "15."
As you might imagine, AMC Theatres, Cinemark and IMAX are all overjoyed with its performance.
AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron tells The Hollywood Reporter, "It is certainly good news for those who care about AMC that with Deadpool & Wolverine we enjoyed the highest ever attendance and highest ever admissions revenue for the opening weekend of a rated-R movie in AMC’s company history."
Sean Gamble, Cinemark President and CEO, added, "We are thrilled to share that Deadpool & Wolverine drove Cinemark’s biggest summer opening weekend of all time, generated record-breaking results in premium formats, and delivered our highest weekend of concession revenues since the pandemic."
Finally, IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond shared, "Deadpool & Wolverine delivered one of the biggest Imax opening weekends of all time, continuing our hot start to the third quarter and furthering our momentum ahead of a fantastic slate over the next several years."
The sky is the limit for this one and we're now left to wait and see how high it can go. We'd imagine Disney and Marvel Studios must already be considering more R-Rated superhero movies (Blade is thought to be next) and must now realise there's a real appetite for these X-Men characters.
You can read our full review of Deadpool & Wolverine here, but we concluded by saying, "A contender for the best superhero movie ever, Deadpool & Wolverine is two hours of Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman proving they were born to play these roles and, crucially, be part of the MCU. It’s a f***ing masterpiece."
Deadpool & Wolverine is now playing in theaters.