5 Reasons Why Deadpool & Wolverine Obliterated The Box Office

As Deadpool might say, let's f***ing go. After six years away from the silver screen, the Merc with a Mouth returned in a big, bad way with Marvel's "Deadpool & Wolverine." As the title makes very clear, Ryan Reynolds' Wade Wilson brought some company with him this time in the form of Hugh Jackman's Wolverine. That combination proved to be absolutely irresistible for moviegoers, as the superhero team-up absolutely obliterated the competition at the box office, shattering records along the way.

Coming in above the already-ridiculous $200 million estimates over the weekend, director Shawn Levy's "Deadpool & Wolverine" pulled in an astonishing $211 million domestically in its debut, representing the biggest opening weekend for an R-rated movie ever. The original "Deadpool" ($132.4 million) was the previous record holder, so we're firmly in record-shattering territory here, well beyond record-breaking. It also represents the sixth-biggest opening weekend of all time behind only "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" ($220 million), "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" ($247.9 million), "Avengers: Infinity War" ($257.6 million), "Spider-Man: No Way Home" ($260.1 million), and "Avengers: Endgame" ($357.1 million).

Looking at the bigger picture, the latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe took in $233.3 million overseas, giving the film a whopping $444.3 million global start. That means it made more money in a single weekend than "Black Widow" ($379.7 million), "Shang-Chi" ($432.2 million), "Eternals" ($401.7 million), and "The Marvels" ($206.1 million) did in their entire theatrical runs.

So, what went right for this long-awaited third installment of the "Deadpool" franchise? How did the MCU go R-rated so successfully for the first time ever? We're going to look at five of the biggest factors that allowed "Deadpool & Wolverine" to crush the box office on opening weekend. Let's get into it.

The reviews for "Deadpool & Wolverine" were generally positive, with the MCU's latest holding a 79% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That's fine, but nowhere near the top end of the pack, and it's certainly not the highest-rated "Deadpool" movie to date by that metric alone. Be that as it may, even with any mixed response out there in the world, it was crystal clear that this movie was going to deliver the crowd-pleasing moments that audiences wanted out of it. From the return of heroes from the Fox era of Marvel to Wade cracking wise about the Disney/Fox merger, it's all there.

"They want to see Hugh Jackman wearing Wolverine's classic yellow costume. They want Deadpool to break the fourth wall. And they'll get all of that," /Film's Chris Evangelista pointed out in his 5 out of 10 review. Even in what was, at best, a mixed assessment of the film, audiences were assured they were going to get precisely what they were looking for. To that end, it currently holds a 97% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes to go with an A CimemaScore. This is the definition of a crowd-pleaser.

Longtime superhero fans have waited an awfully long time to see a proper team-up between these two characters. The fact that "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" fumbled Deadpool so badly 15 years ago only further fueled the desire to see these two interact on screen in a more proper fashion. When Hugh Jackman un-retired to put the claws back on for "Deadpool 3," this movie's box office prospects went up significantly. It was just hard to predict it would be this much. The opening weekend numbers speak volumes about how much general audiences truly wanted to see these two interact with one another.

Jackman has played Wolverine for well over two decades now. Reynolds has been Deadpool for nearly a decade after spending another decade trying to get his first solo movie off the ground. Reynolds and Jackman are also good friends in real life, in addition to being bankable A-list movie stars. It all added up to the perfect storm of "must-see" blockbuster entertainment. This movie's fairly simple title says it all, and it promised people that they were going to get their money's worth.

In 2021/2022, "Spider-Man: No Way Home" made $1.9 billion worldwide, becoming one of the biggest movies ever at a time where nobody knew if movies could even make that kind of money anymore. It did so by promising to reunite villains and heroes from every era of the "Spider-Man" franchise in one movie, using the Marvel multiverse as a tool to do so. It was a storytelling device used in mainstream comics for decades, employed cinematically to maximize on generational nostalgia. "Deadpool & Wolverine" managed to tap into something very similar, albeit through that very specific Deadpool filter.

Without spoiling anything, the film serves as a bit of a goodbye to the Fox era of Marvel movies, with tons of cameos, surprise appearances, and send-offs for characters from an era of superheroes that is now well and truly behind us. It operates a little differently in that the movie understands the pre-MCU Marvel films were absolutely a mixed bag, directly acknowledging that along the way. Even so, audiences entered this film understanding the multiverse well enough to know that some fun surprises were in store, which fueled desire to see it as soon as possible rather than waiting a week or two. This is a situation where people wanted the surprises preserved, and the best way to avoid major spoilers is see it early.

Not only is Ryan Reynolds a major star, but anytime he's in a movie, TV show, or has a stake in a product, there is the added benefit of his marketing genius that comes along with it. Dating back to the brilliant marketing campaign that helped make the first "Deadpool" a record-breaking box office success, Reynolds has demonstrated a true ability to help his projects and products stand out in the crowd. Heck, the man is also behind Mint Mobile and Aviation Gin. He's good at this stuff.

Fortunately for Disney and Marvel Studios, Reynolds brought his A game to the "Deadpool & Wolverine" campaign as well. From understanding the appeal of Dogpool to having fun with the leaks that were happening online well before the movie's release, he helped elevate the whole thing. Overall, the marketing campaign was brilliantly executed, and that obviously extends beyond Reynolds, but he certainly had a hand in it. He and Levy even had the wherewithal to change the movie's title at the last second to make sure they had it right. Top to bottom, this was a masterclass in marketing a blockbuster to the masses.

Not to be missed in the conversation is the fact that "Deadpool & Wolverine" is the only Marvel Cinematic Universe movie coming our way in 2024. The Marvel Studios slate got shuffled around, in no small part because the studios allowed the Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America strikes to drag on last year, and the result is only one film from this franchise will hit theaters this year. Audiences have become accustomed to roughly three MCU films per year, not to mention all of the Marvel shows on Disney+. Even on that side of things, we've only had "Echo" and "X-Men '97" on the streaming service this year.

So 2024 has been a light year for the MCU, relatively speaking. When we also consider that last year's "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" and "The Marvels" didn't resonate all that well with general audiences, it's clear that a real appetite had developed for "Deadpool & Wolverine." Whether or not Marvel Studios will actually take a cue here and slow things down a bit in the future remains to be seen, but there is certainly value in not over-saturating the market. Too much of a good thing can ruin a good thing.

"Deadpool & Wolverine" is in theaters now.