Deadpool & Wolverine's Multiverse Hijinks Made Marvel A Massive Amount Of Money

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This may not come as a big surprise, but Disney and Marvel made an awful lot of money from last year's "Deadpool & Wolverine." Directed by Shawn Levy with Ryan Reynolds starring as Deadpool alongside Hugh Jackman returning as Wolverine, it was one of the biggest movies of 2024 and one of the biggest movies since the pandemic began. The Marvel Cinematic Universe's first R-rated entry paid off handsomely even beyond the box office to deliver massive profits to the Mouse House.

In a recent report from Deadline, it's revealed that Disney ultimately made around $400 million in profits from "Deadpool & Wolverine." Mind you, this is total profits to date from all revenue sources, not just ticket sales. The film made $1.33 billion at the box office, trailing only "Inside Out 2" ($1.69 billion) in 2024. According to this new report, $620 million of that money ultimately made its way back to the studio after theaters took their cut. The film also made $150 million from home entertainment revenue, which includes VOD rentals/sales, in addition to $210 million from TV and streaming.

All told, the film generated $980 million in revenue. After $580 million worth of expenses were factored in, such as the $200 million production budget, a $160 million marketing budget, and various outer expenses such as residuals, that left Disney with $400 million in total profits. That is a massive sum, rivaled only by the $600 million profit turned by 2021's "Spider-Man: No Way Home," which made more than $1.9 billion at the box office as the highest-grossing MCU entry post-"Avengers: Endgame."

This is all very eye-opening. Many people see $1.3 billion in box office revenue and assume you just subtract the budget from that number and boom, that's profit. But as we can see, Disney sure as heck didn't make $1 billion from this movie. Without the post-theatrical revenue, the studio's profits would have been shockingly minimal (relatively speaking) for a movie that was this successful.

The context provided here is important. Let's be crystal clear; "Deadpool & Wolverine" was a home run, but it was also an exception and not the rule. Most movies don't make this kind of money. Yet, for the last handful of years, Hollywood has been contending with a serious budget problem. A $200 million budget used to be exceptionally rare. Now? It's far too common.

Theaters keep about half of the money from ticket sales and marketing can cost nearly as much as a movie's total budget. The old rule of thumb was to take the budget and double that to account for marketing. Then double that number to get to a movie's break-even box office figure. It's amazing how often that math is close to the truth. In this case, the marketing was less than half but $360 million times two gets you to a $720 million break-even point globally. What is $1.33 billion minus $720 million? $610 million and change. Almost precisely the movie's estimated theatrical profits. 

This all serves to demonstrate why these massive budgets are a huge problem. Look at "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," which turned a hilariously small profit after flaming out in theaters following its big opening weekend. That was one of the lucky ones. Marvel's other recent films such as "Eternals," "The Marvels," and quite probably "Captain America: Brave New World" weren't nearly as lucky. They all lost money in theaters. And this is just Marvel, to say nothing of Disney's other blockbuster misfires such as "Snow White," among others. Not to mention other studios such as Warner Bros., Sony, or Universal.

The state of the movie business is more uncertain than it's ever been. This movie was a big hit. That deserves to be celebrated. But the vast majority of movies will never see this kind of money. Hence, making $200 million movies so commonplace increasingly seems like a fool's errand.

You can grab "Deadpool & Wolverine" on 4K, Blu-ray, or DVD from Amazon.