Box Office Report: ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’… Rated R For “Record-Breaking”
Box Office analysis is provided by Daniel Garris of BoxOfficeReport.com.
Weekend Box Office Report: July 26th, 2024 to July 28th, 2024
Disney's Deadpool & Wolverine lived up to the massive hype surrounding the film and then some this weekend with a record-breaking debut of $211.44 million. The third Deadpool film and first Deadpool film as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) delivered both the largest R-rated opening weekend performance of all-time (a record that previously belonged to 2016's Deadpool with $132.43 million) and the largest opening weekend ever for the month of July (a record that previously belonged to the 2019 version of The Lion King with $191.77 million). In addition, Deadpool & Wolverine registered the top opening weekend of 2024 thus far, the second largest opening weekend of the 2020s decade thus far (behind only 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home), the fourth largest opening weekend ever for a film in the MCU, the fifth largest opening weekend ever for Disney and the sixth largest unadjusted domestic opening weekend of all-time. Clearly the teaming up of Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine made the Shawn Levy directed Deadpool & Wolverine a must-see event film.
This weekend's start for Deadpool & Wolverine was even more impressive given that the film held up relatively well as the weekend went on for a mega-event level film. Deadpool & Wolverine had an opening day gross of $96.19 million on Friday (which included an estimated $38.5 million from Thursday preview shows that began at 3PM), declined a sizable, but understandable 35.9 percent on Saturday to gross $61.64 million and decreased a slim 13.0 percent on Sunday to take in $53.60 million. Deadpool & Wolverine ended up with an opening weekend to preview gross ratio of 5.49 to 1. When looking at the 14 Friday openers to have a preview gross of at least $29 million, Deadpool & Wolverine had the third highest opening weekend to preview ross ratio of the group; behind only 2018's Avengers: Infinity War (6.61 to 1) and 2019's Avengers: Endgame (5.95 to 1), both of which opened up at the end of spring. This is a very promising stat for Deadpool & Wolverine going forward, especially when factoring in that Deadpool & Wolverine opened in July, had Thursday previews starting at 3PM and that the film had to deal with competition from the start of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris over the weekend. Another very promising early sign for Deadpool & Wolverine going forward is that the film received a strong A rating on CinemaScore. The audience breakdown for Deadpool & Wolverine skewed 64 percent male, 36 percent female, 63 percent over 25 and 37 percent under 25. Deadpool & Wolverine grossed an estimated $19.1 million from domestic IMAX screens this weekend, which represented 9.0 percent of this weekend's overall domestic gross. All premium formats (including IMAX) represented 18 percent on this weekend's overall domestic gross.
Deadpool & Wolverine was also a powerhouse internationally with an estimated $233.1 million debut from 52 international markets. That places the film's global launch at a massive $444.5 million. International debuts for Deadpool & Wolverine this weekend included $24.0 million in China, $22.1 million in the United Kingdom, $18.7 million in Mexico, $13.0 million in Australia, $10.0 million in Brazil, $10.0 million in Germany, $10.0 million in India, $9.4 million in France, $8.3 million in South Korea, $7.5 million in Italy, $6.9 million in Spain and $5.7 million in Argentina. Deadpool & Wolverine grossed an estimated $17.4 million from international IMAX screens this weekend (including $5.0 million in China), for a global IMAX total of $36.5 million through Sunday.
Universal's Twisters placed in second this weekend with $34.99 million. That represented a sharp 56.9 percent decline from last weekend's stronger than expected debut. Twisters clearly took a significant hit this weekend from the arrival of Deadpool & Wolverine, as in addition to the new direct competition, Twisters also lost its IMAX screens to Deadpool & Wolverine and Twisters also lost more non-IMAX screens and showtimes than a film of its size would typically lose in its second weekend. With that said, it was still possible for Twisters to hold up a bit better than it ultimately did this weekend, but overall the film's second weekend hold was a respectable one given the situation. Twisters passed the $150 million domestic mark this weekend and has exceeded expectations with a ten-day domestic start of $154.62 million. In all likelihood, Twisters will stabilize significantly going forward, especially with the film having gone over well with audiences and with initial daily percentage holds prior to Thursday having been strong for the film.
The international performance for Twisters continues to be a different story, as the film took in just $10.6 million from 76 international markets (where the film is being handled by Warner Bros.). Respective totals for Twisters stand at $66.1 million internationally and at $220.8 million globally. There simply isn't all that much interest in Twisters outside of North America thus far and the massive international start for Deadpool & Wolverine obviously didn't help matters for Twisters internationally this weekend. Totals for Twisters through Sunday by international market include $10.3 million in the United Kingdom, $9.6 million in Mexico, $6.5 million in Australia, $3.6 million in France, $2.6 million in China, $2.3 million in Germany, $2.2 million in Brazil, $1.8 million in Spain and $1.7 million in Taiwan.
Universal also claimed third place this weekend as Despicable Me 4 took in $14.59 million. Despicable Me 4 declined a respectable 40.3 percent from last weekend, as even a computer animated family film like Despicable Me 4 looks to have taken at least a bit of a hit from Deadpool & Wolverine this weekend. With a 26-day domestic total of $291.36 million, Despicable Me 4 has now passed Dune: Part Two to become the second highest grossing release of 2024 thus far domestically, though obviously Deadpool & Wolverine will be overtaking Despicable Me 4 before too long.
Internationally, Despicable Me 4 continued to impress this weekend with $38.9 million from 80 international markets (including a $4.0 million debut in South Korea). That brings the film's international total to $387.9 million and current global haul to $679.3 million. Totals for Despicable Me 4 through Sunday by international market include $39.8 million in China, $36.8 million in Mexico, $32.4 million in the United Kingdom, $26.8 million in Australia, $22.5 million in Germany, $22.0 million in Brazil, $20.7 million in France, $15.6 million in Spain, $13.8 million in Argentina and $10.5 million in Japan.
Disney and Pixar's Inside Out 2 placed in fourth this weekend with $8.62 million. That was down just 32.8 percent from last weekend, as Inside Out 2 had the weekend's best hold among holdovers currently in wide release. With a 45-day domestic gross of $613.72 million, Inside Out 2 has now passed the $608.58 million final domestic gross of 2018's Incredibles 2 to become the highest grossing animated film of all-time domestically (without adjusting for ticket price inflation). This weekend also saw Inside Out 2 pass the $1.5 billion global mark. Inside Out 2 grossed an estimated $22.6 million internationally this weekend from 51 international markets. Respective totals for the film stand at $892.2 million internationally and at $1.506 billion globally.
NEON's Longlegs rounded out the weekend's top five with $6.78 million. Longlegs was down 43.4 percent from last weekend, as the break-out R-rated horror thriller continues to hold up nicely, especially for its genre. With a 17-day domestic gross of $58.63 million, Longlegs has now overtaken 2019's Parasite (which had a final domestic gross of $53.37 million) to become the highest grossing film ever for NEON domestically. This coming weekend Longlegs will face new direct competition from the release of Warner Bros.'s new thriller Trap.
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