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In the decade prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was a fairly regular occurrence to hear about movies making $1 billion at the global box office – but that has changed significantly in the last few years. Nine blockbusters hit that milestone in 2019 alone… and only eight have done it since 2021. The first title to join the Post-Pandemic $1 Billion Club was Jon Watts‘ Spider-Man: No Way Home, and now, the latest release from Marvel Studios, Shawn Levy’s Deadpool & Wolverine, has become the latest member.
The new R-rated MCU film once again had another spectacular weekend at the box office, but it also had some interesting competition in the form of Justin Baldoni’s It Ends With Us and Eli Roth‘s Borderlands. Check out the full Top 10 below and join me after for analysis.
| TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Deadpool & Wolverine | $54,175,000 | $494,331,382 | 1 | 4,230 |
| 2. It Ends With Us | $50,000,000 | $50,000,000 | N/A | 4,009 |
| 3. Twisters | $15,000,000 | $222,262,000 | 2 | 3,181 |
| 4. Borderlands | $8,800,000 | $8,800,000 | N/A | 3,376 |
| 5. Despicable Me 4 | $8,000,000 | $330,132,000 | 4 | 2,615 |
| 6. Trap | $6,725,000 | $28,676,000 | 3 | 3,325 |
| 7. Inside Out 2 | $4,956,000 | $636,456,948 | 5 | 2,150 |
| 8. Harold And The Purple Crayon | $3,100,000 | $12,889,000 | 6 | 702 |
| 9. Cuckoo | $3,012,500 | $3,012,500 | N/A | 1,039 |
| 10. Longlegs | $2,000,000 | $71,251,907 | 7 | 437 |
Deadpool & Wolverine Tops The Domestic Box Office Again With A Soft 44 Percent Weekend-To-Weekend Drop
As I’ve previously noted in this box office column, movies from the Marvel Cinematic Universe have demonstrated an issue with audience retention in the last few years. Since the release of Cate Shortland’s Black Widow, just about every title has experienced a weekend-to-weekend dip of at least 60 percent. Deadpool & Wolverine, however, has proven to be one of the exceptions to this trend, as it has followed-up its record-breaking debut by continuing to put up big ticket sale numbers.
Since 2021, only Destin Daniel Cretton’s Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, James Gunn‘s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Deadpool & Wolverine have successfully avoid 60 percent-plus drops in the aftermath of their opening weekends. The new film starring Ryan Reynolds only saw a 54 percent drop in domestic totals last Sunday, and compared to that haul, the $54.2 million that it made over the last three days represents just a 44 percent drop.
To date, according to The Numbers, Deadpool & Wolverine has made $494.3 million in the United States and Canada – making it the second biggest hit of the year so far behind Kelly Marcel’s Inside Out 2 (which has made $636.5 million so far and continues to hang around in the back half of the Top 10). It’s the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time domestically, and it will soon take the record of highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time worldwide (it needs to make only about $35 million more to take that particular badge of honor from Todd Phillips‘ Joker).
As far as the business that Deadpool & Wolverine is doing within the context of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, one might wonder if its performance will convince executives to experiment more with adult-centric fare. It’s the eleventh movie in the franchise to earn $1 billion worldwide (there are 34 features to date) and it has outgrossed massive hits like Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: Homecoming and all three of James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy films.
The film will start to slow down soon, but its not unreasonable to think that it could end up surpassing the worldwide grosses of Shane Black‘s Iron Man 3 ($1.215 billion), Joe and Anthony Russo’s Captain America: Civil War ($1.152 billion), Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: Far From Home ($1.133 billion) and Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s Captain Marvel ($1.130 billion).
Blake Lively Independently Joins Husband Ryan Reynolds In The Box Office Top 5 As It Ends With Us Has A $50 Million Domestic Debut
There has surely been a lot of celebrating at the Ryan Reynolds/Blake Lively household of late thanks to the success of Deadpool & Wolverine (in addition to Reynolds starring, his wife has a masked cameo as Ladypool) – but now Lively has her own independent reason to be happy about box office success. The actress’ latest movie, an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s popular romance novel It Ends With Us, arrived in theaters this weekend, and while it wasn’t able to take the #1 spot away from the big MCU blockbuster that is dominating the Top 10, it ended up doing exceptionally well.
According to The New York Times, It Ends With Us was made with just a modest $25 million budget, but it has made double that amount in ticket sales after just three days in theaters. The film overall has gotten a mixed reception from critics (albeit with praise for Blake Lively’s performance), but audiences are evidently loving it – as illustrated by the “A-” grade that it received from CinemaScore surveys.
Needless to say, this is an interesting market development. While it is based on source material that has a significant fanbase, It Ends With Us is not what one would call typical summer fare for the big screen, and its success is significant. These are the kind of results that start generating behind the scenes conversations about new strategies in Hollywood, and if buzz around the film leads to strong box office legs through the rest of August, it may end up being seen an influential title in the coming years.
Eli Roth’s Borderlands Is Shaping Up To Be A Major Box Office Flop
Contrasting the success of It Ends With Us is the dismal performance of Borderlands – which isn’t terribly surprising given that this is a film that went through a lot of post-production work following principal photography all the way back in 2021 and received a very small marketing push from Lionsgate. The movie theoretically had a built in fanbase given that it is based on a video game series, but only a very small fraction showed up for the film’s opening weekend.
Variety reports that the movie was made with a budget in the $115 million range, and its theatrical debut suggests that its going to be a significant flop. After receiving a critical drubbing at the end of last week (I gave Borderlands a one-and-a-half star review for CinemaBlend), the film made just $8.8 million in its first three days. That was good enough for it to land a spot in the Top 5, but there is every expectation that it will fade very, very fast.
Looking ahead to next week, there is some expectation that Deadpool & Wolverine may be dethroned by the arrival of Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus, but just how well it will do is a big curiosity. Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday for the full weekend box office breakdown, and check out our 2024 Movie Release Calendar to learn about all of the big films on their way to theaters in the coming weeks and months.