The big story on Sunday was, of course, “Inside Out 2,” but not too far behind was Deadline’s projected numbers for “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
Apparently, the upcoming Disney/Marvel Studios’ film, which just hit six-week tracking, is reporting a projected opening weekend of $200M-$239M, which the service actually believes is conservative.
There never has been an R-rated movie that has opened to $200M, and the Ryan Reynolds-Hugh Jackman threequel might just do that. We don’t even know if it’s a good film, but that doesn’t seem to matter. The current record for an R-rated opening is owned by the first ‘Deadpool' ($132.4M).
A trailer for the film, which Matthew Vaughn claims will “save the whole Marvel universe,” was released in April. Based on the “buzz,” and early word of mouth, I have no doubt that Shawn Levy’s “Deadpool & Wolverine” will be a box office success.
Succeeding directors Tim Miller and David Leitch, Levy is helming this third ‘Deadpool’ movie. He’s the stalwart filmmaker behind “Big Fat Liar,” “Just Married,” “Cheaper by the Dozen,” “The Internship,” “Real Steal,” the “Pink Panther” reboot and those “Night at the Museum” movies. Not a single good movie out of the bunch.
The first two ‘Deadpool’ movies each grossed around $780 million worldwide. The franchise has only grown in popularity on home media and the notion that this third one could cross the billion dollar mark is not a stretch — it’s also set to become the first R-rated instalment of the MCU.
Marvel is trying wipe out the stink of their last flop, “The Marvels,” and will be banking hard on this one, which is set to be the only MCU movie released this year. It’s an R-rated buddy comedy. As the trailer suggests, it’s also a road trip movie. Levy said he borrowed from 1988’s “Midnight Run.” As with all of these ‘Deadpool’ movies, there’s a lot of tongue-in-cheek meta going on here.
“Deadpool & Wolverine,” the second to last movie in the MCU’s Phase 5, is scheduled for a July 26, 2024.