Wade Wilson is many things to many people – the Merc With a Mouth, a gun-toting wisecrack, World’s Best Lover…you name it.
But now that Deadpool 2 has officially crossed $700 million worldwide, he’s also an incredibly lucrative superhero (anti-hero?). Per Deadline, Fox and David Leitch’s sequel is now the third highest-grossing R-rated movie, well, ever – only Deadpool and The Matrix Reloaded have grossed more across their respective runs.
As of Sunday, Deadpool 2 has earned $304.1M domestic and $400.9M at the international box office, bringing the total to $705M, to be precise – higher than the lifetime tally of New Line’s It reboot, no less. Perhaps most impressive of all is that the sequel’s box office figures don’t include China; much like its R-rated predecessor, Deadpool 2 skipped the Middle Kingdom altogether.
Not that that had much of an effect, really, as the Merc’s sophomore outing became Fox’s biggest international opening of all time with $176.3M from 81 markets, just edging out the previous $174M record from X-Men: Days Of Future Past.
Suffice it to say, it’s been a pretty wild and successful ride for Deadpool 2 and its crew. And to think Fox brass questioned the Merc’s staying power before that fabled test footage was leaked online…
To cap things off, here’s a congratulatory Tweet from the Merc himself:
Crisp high fives and hearty chest-bumps to this entire cast and crew. #Deadpool2 https://t.co/ugxdf4QYS8
— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) June 25, 2018
Whether Deadpool 2 has enough mileage in the tank to outstrip its predecessor ($783M) is still up for debate, but one thing’s for sure: the raunchy sequel is officially the third Marvel-based movie to gross higher than $300M at the domestic box office this year – a feat it shares with Avengers: Infinity War and Black Panther.