Box Office: 'Deadpool & Wolveirne' Is Holding Incredibly Well For a July MCU Release And a Marvel Mythology Episode

Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman's 'Deadpool 3' will be the top-earning R-rated movie (domestically) and top-earning 'X-Men' movie (globally) by tomorrow.

The bad news? Deadpool & Wolverine is about to become the newest member of the $100 million losers club (when a movie opens so high on weekend one, it earns over $100 million less on weekend two). The good news? Everything else. The Ryan Reynolds/Hugh Jackman-starring MCU threequel earned another $28.3 million on Friday, falling 70% from its $96.2 million opening day (which included $38.5 million in Thursday previews) and bringing its eight-day domestic total to $326.9 million. That will put it past Despicable Me 4 (no slouch with $313 million after 33 days) as the second-biggest domestic earner of 2024 behind Inside Out 2 ($627 million by Sunday night, passing The Last Jedi and The Avengers sans inflation).

The Shawn Levy-directed action comedy is already past the unadjusted domestic lifetime cume for Deadpool 2 ($324 million in 2018, counting that PG-13 Once Upon a Deadpool cut). With a likely $96 million (-55%) second weekend gross and $394 million ten-day total, it’ll spend the next two days flying past night a slew of R-rated blockbusters (the $327 million-$371 million grossing likes of It, Oppenheimer, Joker, American Sniper, Deadpool and The Passion of the Christ) to become the top-earning R-rated movie ever in unadjusted domestic grosses.

Yes, it’s still well behind the inflation-adjusted totals of (offhand and in no order) Beverly Hills Cop, Saturday Night Fever, Terminator 2, The Exorcist and The Godfather, but let’s see where it finishes before we compare and contrast “tickets sold” milestones. With over/under $700 million worldwide as of Friday, it’ll today pass X-Men: Days of Future Past ($747 million in 2014) and Deadpool ($763 million in 2016) as the top-earning X-Men flick in unadjusted global grosses. That Deadpool 3 will “only” drop $115 million between weekends is a testament to legs. It’s a July MCU movie and an alleged/Marvel mythology episode, both (think Thor: Love and Thunder and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) of which tend to have big second-weekend drops.