AFTER a big opening weekend that defied all expectations and set new cinema records, Marvel’s superhero sequel ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ from director Shawn Levy — who co-wrote with Ryan Reynolds — continues its historic run with roughly $50 million weekdays and nearly $550 million worldwide box office cume through today.

Opening last weekend to an eye-popping $444 million amid rave critical review (read mine here) and a Cinemascore audience grade of “A,” Deadpool & Wolverine, starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman in their respective personas from the 20th Century Studios franchises, brings the pair into the MCU via the multiverse.
While the story moves through many different realities, the so-called “Sacred Timeline” of the main Marvel Studios shared world of heroes features prominently, connecting various Marvel movie adaptations from years past via the Time Variance Authority introduced in the Disney+ streaming series Loki.

Taking about $24 million domestic and $26 million international on both Monday and Tuesday, Deadpool & Wolverine should land somewhere around $635 million as it heads into next Friday, and is on track to top at least $800 million on its second weekend of release. Low end, it looks to finish with at least $775 million this coming weekend, just $11 million shy of being the biggest Deadpool film in franchise history.
On the higher end of outcomes, Deadpool & Wolverine could top $900 million if weekday holds continue as strong as Monday’s and Tuesday’s sales, and if it doesn’t suffer a typical large drop on second weekend (tentpoles like this tend to be front loaded). So far this year, the narrative for successful releases has been low weekly declines in the 30-40% range.

A final tally north of $1 billion is inevitable now, probably before third weekend but definitely by end of third weekend at the latest, and the only question is whether it will have enough gas in the tank to keep up with Inside Out 2’s $1.5+ billion cume and challenge for the 2024 box office crown .

The enormous popularity of Deadpool & Wolverine all but guarantees we can expect to see Hugh Jackman return to the role at least one more time, for Avengers: Secret Wars when it arrives May 7th, 2027. But whether that will truly be Jackman’s final outing in the iconic role remains to be seen. If he’s helping elevate films to billion-dollar box office levels, there’s a pretty obvious argument for him to stick around.
(Restructured from Forbes)