It looks like that Ryan Reynolds’ eleven year journey to get Deadpool made into a feature film has been worth the wait. Almost everyone expected the Deadpool movie to open well this weekend, but the newest X-Men spinoff film far exceeded even the wildest of expectations. After pulling in $12.7 million (a record for an R-rated movie) from the Thursday night previews and an additional $34.8 million on Friday, Deadpool is on track for an opening weekend that may go as high as $123 million, according to some estimates. With President’s Day on Monday, the four day total could also go as high as $136 million.
For perspective, the biggest opening weekend in the X-Men film franchise previously belonged to X-Men: The Last Stand at $102.7 million. Deadpool will likely far surpass that on the way towards breaking the President’s Day opening record previously held by Fifty Shades of Grey. Deadpool is also the biggest opener of Ryan Reynolds’ career to date and one of the biggest non-summer opening weekends.
Hollywood is falling all over itself to congratulate 20th Century Fox for its Deadpool ad campaign, which helped introduce the character to a wider audience. And rightly so, because it was a really well-run campaign. But the demand for a Deadpool movie has been growing for several years. It’s not a coincidence that Marvel was pumping out multiple Deadpool ongoing comics and miniseries while also putting Deadpool into video games, animated series, and other merchandise. Go to any geeky convention and you’ll see that Deadpool has also become a very popular cosplay among fans.
The Deadpool sequel is already in the early planning stages, but it doesn’t currently have a release date or a production schedule. Given the response to Deadpool this weekend, don’t be too shocked if 20th Century Fox puts Deadpool 2 on a fast track for 2018.
How high do you think Deadpool’s box office will go? Share your predictions below!
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HT: Deadline
Image Credit:Â 20th Century Fox/Marvel
Everything you need to know about Deadpool’s origin
