Deadpool got off to an excellent start with $12.7 million on Thursday night and earned a muscular $47.5 million on Friday (which was 17.3 million more than Fifty Shades of Grey earned on its first Friday). Revenue dipped 10.4% on Saturday as the R-rated comic adaptation brought in just under $43 million. Estimates for the 3-day weekend total are in the $135 million range, while the 4-day total should come in somewhere between $150 and $156 million.
Deadpool’s potent debut is a major win for actor Ryan Reynolds, who lobbied for almost 10 years to get Fox to make the Deadpool movie a hard “R.” Fox did agree, but kept the budget for Deadpool down to a bare bones (for a major superhero release) $58 million. Vindication for Reynolds, who stumbled badly in Warner Bros. ill-conceived Green Lantern film, comes in the form of a number of shattered box office records (not accounting for inflation) including “Largest February Opening Weekend” (previously held by Fifty Shades at $85 million), “Largest 4-Day President’s Day Weekend” ($93 million by Fifty Shades), “Largest R-Rated Opening” ($91.7 million by The Matrix Reloaded), Largest R-Rated Comic Adaptation Opening Weekend ($70.8 million from 300), “Largest Winter Season Opening Weekend” ($89.2 million by American Sniper), “Largest Opening for a First Time Feature Director,” and “Largest Opening Ever for 20th Century Fox” ($108.4 million by Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith).
The story is much the same overseas, where Deadpool racked up $125 million in ticket sales from 61 markets including the biggest opening of all time in Russia. Domestically Deadpool’s 3-Day $135 million total makes it the #7 comic book movie debut of all time trailing just the two Avengers movies, the last two Dark Knight movies, Iron Man 3 and Spider-Man 3.
Deadpool’s massive opening also put to rest the notion that comic book movies are on the wane, or that a hard “R” superhero film would appeal only to the Comic-Con crowd. In fact Deadpool has set a very high bar for the 8 other major superhero films that are set to drop later this year, and the Merc with a Mouth doesn’t appear to anywhere near done yet. Deadpool, which has been well received by the critics (currently 84% positive on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes), earned an “A” CinemaScore from all age groups in the opening weekend audience, with 92% of those surveyed saying they would recommend the film to a friend, and 76% checking the “Excellent Box,” a figure very close to that earned by Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Deadpool didn’t leave much oxygen in the room for other films. The audience for the family-oriented Kung Fu Panda 3 was largely immune to the appeal of the R-rated Deadpool, and Panda 3 dropped just 7.5% as it earned $19.7 million over the 3-day holiday to finish in second place.
The romantic comedy How to Be Single ended up a disappointing third with $18.8 million over the 3-days. The $38 million production should have some “legs” (comedies typically hang around a bit longer than other genre films), but a lackluster “B” CinemaScore doesn’t bode particularly well.
Things look even worse for the Ben Stiller-starring Zoolander 2, which took in $15.7 million for the 3-day weekend, well under what analysts had expected. While How to Be Single managed a 47% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Zoolander 2 is at just 23% positive, a far cry from the 64% positive the first Zoolander earned back in 2001, and the poor “C+” CinemaScore than Zoolander 2 earned this weekend does not augur well for the film’s future prospects.
Alejandro Inarritu’s The Revenant continued its strong box office performance as it dropped just .6%, earning $6.9 million and bringing its domestic total to $159.2 million in its eighth weekend of release. The Coen Brothers’ behind-the-scenes Hollywood misfire Hail, Caesar posted the biggest drop in the top ten, falling 42% as it brought in $6.6 million. With a cost of just $22 million, Hail, Caesar won’t lose much, but it doesn’t appear to have a chance to make much either.
J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens dropped 11.2% as it earned $6.2 million driving its record domestic total (not adjusted for inflation) to $915 million.
Be sure to check back here next week to see if Deadpool can hold off a challenge from two widely-released newcomers, the religiously-themed Risen, and the Jesse Owens biographical sports saga Race.
