To paraphrase the Fates from Disney’s Hercules, Deadpool & Wolverine — like indoor plumbing — is gonna be big. After a magnificent marketing campaign that has raised hype to heavenly levels, all the signs are pointing to this being one of the most successful Marvel movies of the Multiverse Saga era.
Except maybe that’s actually thinking too small. The excitement is arguably even higher now than it was for another long-awaited threequel, last May’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which brought home just shy of $850 million at the box office. Could Deadpool 3 be on hand to become the first MCU film since 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home to cross the $1 billion mark?
We’re still a ways from finding that out, but the odds are certainly in its favor.
Deadpool & Wolverine is on course to break a box office record no other 2024 movie has managed
According to THR, Deadpool 3‘s record-breaking first-day ticket sales mean that it’s already earned around $8-9 million, two months ahead of its release this July. What’s more, although it’s a little too soon for full box office projections to be made, this early bump indicates that it could certainly kick off with an $100 million opening weekend. And, if it does, it might just become the biggest movie of 2024.
It’s no secret that this year has been tough on theaters, thanks to the lack of any huge pop culture event like last summer’s Barbenheimer and the knock-on effects of the 2023 strikes creating a sparser than usual slate. This means that no release this year to date has managed to open to $100 million domestically.
There are a couple of major family films coming before it that could nab the accolade first — Pixar’s Inside Out 2 and Illumination’s Despicable Me 4 — but if they fail then it might just be on Deadpool to save cinema as we know it. Who would’ve thought that would ever be the case when Fox first took the chance on an R-rated superhero flick back in 2016?
Go bring distributors some of that much-needed dough, Wade Wilson. In Deadpool we trust.
