Lady Deadpool Herself Kicks Deadpool & Wolverine Out Of The Box Office No. 1 Spot
Fighting off a killer shark. Becoming immortal. Leading the Deadpool Corps. Is there anything that Blake Lively can't do?
Apparently not! Fresh off a cameo appearance as Lady Deadpool in the box office record-smashing "Deadpool & Wolverine," Lively returned to end the Marvel movie's run at No. 1 on Friday. Her new movie "It Ends With Us," based on the best-selling novel by Colleen Hoover, is on track for an astonishing opening weekend that could reach as high as $50 million. That's particularly notable since "It Ends With Us" is a romantic drama, and that genre is typically relegated to streaming releases these days.
Deadline reports that "It Ends With Us" easily topped the charts on Friday with a $24 million opening day including $7 million in previews, and still ranks above "Deadpool & Wolverine" even without those preview ticket sales. Women made up 84% of the opening day crowd, according to Post Trak exit polling
Lively is married to "Deadpool" star Ryan Reynolds in real life, so having back-to-back hits at the box office cements their status as a true Hollywood power couple. While "It Ends With Us" claimed the victory on Friday, "Deadpool & Wolverine" will probably hold on to the top of the podium this weekend. The Hollywood Reporter has estimated a $50-56 million third weekend that will also see the R-rated Marvel movie crossing the $1 billion worldwide mark.
Blake Likely has cornered the market on movies for women
There's one thing to be said for the 2011 "Green Lantern" movie: it brought this particular power couple together. Blake Lively co-starred as love interest Carol Ferris alongside Ryan Reynolds' Hal Jordan, and that interest in love could not be contained by the silver screen. 13 years later, the pair are married with four kids (two of whom played Babypool and Kidpool in "Deadpool & Wolverine") and have charted their own individual success stories on the big screen.
Lively in particular has become a reliable star of so-called "chick flicks" i.e. movies overtly marketed towards a female audience. These are traditionally a tough sell at the box office because, to borrow a 2013 quote from writer/director Mike White...
"If I have a male protagonist, it's a studio movie, and if it's a female protagonist, it's an indie movie. That's just how it is. It's not about the studios. It's about America and who goes to see movies. Women are interested in men and women, and men aren't interested in the woman's story. They just aren't. There are exceptions, but by and large ... I mean I do think that it's feminizing for a guy to go see a movie with a female lead unless it's Angelina Jolie shooting people or 'Zero Dark Thirty' or something that feels like it's in the male sphere."
That men made up only 16% of the audience for "It Ends With Us" suggests not much has changed in that regard since 2013. Fortunately, Lively is doing just fine with her mostly-female audience. The fact that most theatrical releases are marketed towards general audiences or male audiences creates a gap in the market that movies like "It Ends With Us," "The Age of Adaline," and "A Simple Favor" have capitalized on — with great success.