Walt Disney Co’s Deadpool & Wolverine took in US$211 million in US and Canadian ticket sales this weekend, the biggest domestic debut of this year.
 
The movie also scored the best-ever opening for an R-rated picture, with more than twice the ticket sales of Warner Bros Discovery Inc’s Joker during its first weekend. Joker went on to become the highest grossing R-rated film in history with more than US$1 billion at the box office after its 2019 release. 

Boxoffice Pro had forecast Deadpool & Wolverine opening ticket sales of between US$180 million and US$200 million going into the weekend. 

Deadpool & Wolverine, which sees Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman reprise their roles as the foul-mouthed superhero and X-Men mutant, is the third instalment in the Deadpool series. Disney acquired the film and television rights to the characters after its US$71.3 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019 and considers them some of the most important intellectual property that came with the deal, alongside Avatar. 

“It’s tremendous but it’s not surprising - they did a great job marketing this, creating so much anticipation for the product and a feeling that you have to go out and see it now,” said Mike Bowers, chief executive officer of the Harkins cinema chain and vice chairman of the National Association of Theatre Owners. 

Bowers said the running time of about two hours allowed for more screenings, and the momentum from other successful theatrical movies in recent months, such as the horror hit Longlegs and Inside Out 2 from Disney subsidiary Pixar, helped drive audiences back to cinemas. 

The success of Deadpool & Wolverine energises the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a roster of 34 interconnected films that together form the most successful movie franchise in Hollywood history with more than US$30 billion at the box office. After overtaxing audiences with a high volume of pictures, the wider superhero genre has underperformed in recent years with releases including Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels, as well as DC’s The Flash and Shazam! Fury of the Gods all failing to recoup their production budgets. 

“Your little cinematic universe is about to change, forever!” Reynolds’ character says in the movie.

Deadpool & Wolverine accelerates a turnaround at Disney’s film division, which hasn’t turned a profit since April 2022. Globally, the film sold US$444.1 million worth of tickets, Disney said on Monday.

Before this, the biggest opening weekend of the year in the US and Canada was Inside Out 2. It’s grossed US$1.46 billion at the box office since its June release.

The results are also good news for cinema chains such as AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc and Regal-owner Cineworld Group, which have been struggling with weaker ticket sales amid a slowdown in film releases.

  - Bloomberg