"Deadpool & Wolverine" Smashes Records, Becomes 6th Biggest Debut in Box Office History

“Deadpool & Wolverine” soared higher than expected in its first weekend of release. 

The comic book tentpole, starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, gross3d $211 million in its domestic box office debut, ranking as the sixth-biggest opening of all time.

Ticket sales were above Sunday’s record-breaking estimate of $205 million, which already stood as the biggest opening weekend of the year and the largest ever for an R-rated movie. With Monday’s final tally, “Deadpool & Wolverine” has grossed $444.3 million globally after three days of release.

Only “Avengers: Endgame” ($357 million), “Spider-Man: No Way Home” ($260 million), “Avengers: Infinity War” ($257 million), “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($247 million) and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” ($220 million) have enjoyed bigger starts at the domestic box office. 

All of those tentpoles crossed the $1 billion mark with ease — a milestone that’s all but assured at this point for “Deadpool & Wolverine.” If the superhero epic joins the billion-dollar club, it’ll be only the second R-rated film in history — after 2019’s “Joker” ($1.07 billion globally) — to achieve that victory.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” is notable because it ushers the comic book characters that were previously licensed to 20th Century Fox into Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

Ticket sales for the Shawn Levy-directed tentpole were stratospheric because ardent fans wanted to watch the film as early as possible to avoid plot twists, major cameos and see Jackman’s gruff mutant Logan emerge from retirement.

Over the weekend, Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe became the first film franchise ever to cross $30 billion at the global box office, but not all of the franchise’s 34 installments were box office winners (the less said about recent entries like “Eternals,” “The Marvels” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” the better), the MCU remains in rarified air in terms of commercial appeal.