Deadpool has officially crushed R-rated box office records, with Ryan Reynolds’ superhero movie taking in an estimated $150 million domestically over the four-day weekend.
We recently reported that R-rated films have always been at a disadvantage due to losing quite a large portion of its potential audience, with U.S. theaters only allowing people age 17+ to see the film without a guardian (of at least 21 years old).
Deadpool was aggressively promoting itself to be an R-rated superhero movie, and its promotion was so well-executed that we imagine there were many underage moviegoers who wished to get in early to see the film Thursday night. Age restrictions didn’t seem to matter much as the film ended up taking in a massive $12.7 million during its Thursday night previews, beating out the previous record holder The Hangover Part II by $2.3 million.
The foul-mouthed superhero was estimated to open with a respectable $55 million, but as the numbers came in on Thursday it was estimated to take in $70+ million over the holiday weekend. This would be a huge success for a film with a reported $58 million dollar budget, but now we know it nearly tripled that figure.
Deadpool’s $150 million at the domestic box office makes it the highest-grossing President’s Day opener of all time, beating previous record-holder Fifty Shades of Grey by nearly $60 million.
The film’s promotion was incredibly impressive and unique, which surely added quite a bit to the studio’s budget, but even at a total cost of $80 million Deadpool is going to see a great return.
Even if the drop-off is massive after the opening weekend, they’ve nearly tripled their budget (including promotion) just in domestic ticket sales. While many studios thought it impossible to profit with an R-rated superhero film, 20th Century Fox put its full weight behind the project after leaked footage was so well-received, resulting in a phenomenal hit.
Deadpool felt a lot like an indie-superhero movie, which just so happened to attract a massive audience. It felt more like what we’d see from a solo Disney/Marvel superhero movie.
Deadpool even jokes in the film that Fox was able to keep the film’s cost low because they didn’t cast many other X-Men. Whether this was true or not, they did something right, because fans flocked to the theater this Valentine’s Day weekend, which resulted in an entirely unusual and surprising record smashing box office total.
We were curious if the average moviegoer would head to the theaters this weekend to see if they would enjoy the merc with the mouth just as much as the diehard fans did when it premiered on Thursday, and these numbers certainly prove that it went far beyond diehard fans.
Make sure to check back for updates as we’ll be posting the official box office numbers for Deadpool soon, which can only get bigger and more impressive. Also be sure to check out Hypable’s spoiler-free review of the film, as well as a look at the film’s post-credits scenes.
Deadpool 2 has already been greenlit, and its script is currently being worked on. We can’t wait to see what the foul-mouthed superhero is up to in the now highly-anticipated sequel.