After recent 'rough times' (their words, not ours) for Marvel, this past weekend has been a real shot in the arm for the MCU. Over in San Diego, the studio enjoyed a triumphant return to Hall H at Comic-Con, unveiling amongst other things Robert Downey Jr. and the Russo Brothers' imminent return for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. And at the box office, Shawn Levy's hotly anticipated Deadpool trilogy capper Deadpool & Wolverine enjoyed a phenomenal opening weekend, taking $438.3 million worldwide for the biggest domestic and global open for an R-rated movie of all time. Check out Jackman's memeable reaction to the film's success below;
In the run-up to the release of Levy's threequel, star Reynolds described his film to Empire as "the most Deadpool movie in the history of Deadpool," and fans have turned out en masse for not only the Merc With A Mouth's MCU debut and a long-awaited (not to mention long overdue) 'Pool and Wolvie team-up, but also a chance to say goodbye to the now-defunct FOX Marvel universe. To put the movie's success into perspective, it's enjoyed the biggest launch of 2024 in cinemas, the biggest launch globally since Avatar: The Way Of Water, and the eighth biggest launch of all time for any movie of any age rating, pushing the Marvel Cinematic Universe's all-time takings as a franchise past the eye-watering $30 billion mark in the process. Not bad going for a character who made his cinematic debut with his mouth sewn shut, eh?
Deadpool & Wolverine's quick-out-the-gates start at the global box office joins Inside Out 2 as the other great success story for Marvel and Pixar parent company Disney this summer. Now in its seventh week of release (and still yet to open in Japan), Kelsey Mann's emotional sequel — which just last week became the highest-grossing animated movie of all time — has now crossed the $1.5 billion mark as it cruises towards overtaking Top Gun: Maverick on its way to the all-time box office top 10. The success of these two franchise behemoths, alongside the strong box office legs of genre fare like Longlegs and A Quiet Place: Day One, has helped turn an initially nervy summer for cinemas and studios alike into a real reminder of the power of bricks-and-mortar cinema. Long live the theatrical cinematic experience, we say! (And go see Deadpool & Wolverine so we can talk about that cameo... and *that* one... and especially *THAT* one!