Slowly but surely, it looks certain that Infinity War‘s historic reign at the global box office is coming to an end.
The next pretender to the throne? Deadpool 2, Fox and David Leitch’s comic book sequel that has been whipping up a storm ever since it hit tracking four weeks ago. Back then, industry analysts predicted a strong $150M opening in North America which, coupled with the film’s performance overseas, would comfortably knock Avengers: Infinity War from its perch.
Fast forward to now, and on the eve of release, Deadline has crunched the numbers to reveal that Deadpool 2 is expected to score anywhere between $305M-$350M worldwide this weekend – $130M-$150M of which will be collected Stateside.
Sources close to the outlet even go so far as to suggest that Deadpool 2‘s opening numbers may scale higher now that the review embargo has broken – spoilers: critics (generally) love it – but if nothing else, this box office update tells us that the imminent sequel stands a good chance of outstripping its predecessor ($132.4M over 3 days; $152.1M over 4 days) to become the top R-rated domestic opener of all time.
One thing’s for sure, 20th Century Fox is doubling down on its summer tentpole. At 4,332 theaters, not only is Deadpool 2 the widest R-rated release in film history – higher than even the 4,103 count for New Line’s It reboot – but it’s also the widest release ever for any 20th Century Fox property, at the expense of DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 at 4,253.
Deadpool 2 seems destined for glory, then, and we’ll be keeping a close eye on those box office numbers as they begin to roll in.
