‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Scores Huge in Massive Second Weekend

“Deadpool & Wolverine,” starring Ryan Reynolds (as the Merc With a Mouth who calls himself the messiah of his world) and Hugh Jackman has delivered yet another shockwave to the box office, raking in an incredible $97 million during its second weekend of sales.

With a mere 53% decrease from its impressive $211 million opening weekend, these ticket sales are the eighth-biggest in domestic box office history. The only blockbuster releases with higher second-week grossing figures are the $949 million “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” $147 million “Avengers: Endgame,” and $114 million “Infinity War,” “Black Panther,” $111 million, “Jurassic World,” $106 million, “The Avengers,” and this June’s $101 million “Inside Out 2.” “Deadpool & Wolverine” pushed aside “Barbie,” the smash hit from the previous year, which had brought in $93 million in its second weekend at the No. 8 position.

Following just two weekends of release, “Deadpool & Wolverine” has already surpassed the original two “Deadpool” movies with $783 million and $786 million, respectively, with $395 million in North America and $824 million worldwide. The comic book sequel is currently the third-biggest R-rated film of all time, after “Joker” ($1.07 billion) and “Oppenheimer” ($975 million), and the second-biggest film of 2024 behind “Inside Out 2” ($1.555 billion globally). In a few days, it is anticipated to surpass the coveted $1 billion milestone.

Due to “Deadpool & Wolverine’s” ongoing dominance, two new releases were unable to achieve success at the box office. With $15 million from 3,181 theaters, M. Night Shyamalan’s dark thriller “Trap,” which stars Josh Hartnett as a good-hearted father who doubles as a serial killer, debuted in third place. Meanwhile, Sony’s family-friendly film “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” which grossed a pitiful $6 million from 3,325 screens, crashed in sixth place.

“Trap” is one of the milder openings from Shyamalan’s career. His two previous films, “Old” from 2021 and “Knock at the Cabin” from 2023, likewise had poor openings, earning $14.1 million and $16.8 million, respectively. “Knock at the Cabin,” a thriller about a family held captive while vacationing at a remote cabin, tapped out with just $35 million domestically and $54 million worldwide, while “Old,” a mystery about a beach that rapidly ages its inhabitants, managed to rebound with $48 million domestically and $90 million worldwide.

“Harold and the Purple Crayon,” which is based on the children’s book of the same name, lagged behind other family films on the domestic charts, even though those films had been showing on big screens for more than a month. “Despicable Me 4” came in fourth place with $11.2 million during its fifth weekend of release, and “Inside Out 2” came in fifth place with $6.7 million during its eighth weekend of release. With a $40 million production budget, “Harold,” a live-action/animated hybrid film stars Zachary Levi as a man who uses a magical marker to bring his drawings to life. Sony is therefore counting on the movie to do well with families for the rest of the summer. Despite the fact that reviewers detested “Harold and the Purple Crayon” (with a 28% “rotten” score on Rotten Tomatoes), the “A-” rating on CinemaScore indicates that the few moviegoers who purchased tickets were far more enthused.

As per Paul Dergarabedian, senior Comscore analyst, “July was a knockout, delivering big and pushing the month over the $1 billion mark domestically.” The next several weeks, he says, “should not be as good.” The “hit films of July will now have to shoulder the responsibility of bolstering the month of August as we head toward the summer season finish line.”

Source: Variety