Disney and Marvel Studios‘ “Deadpool & Wolverine” clawed up a massive $96 million from 4,210 locations across Friday and preview screenings. That’s far and away the biggest domestic opening day of the year — ahead of the $62 million that “Inside Out 2” nabbed in June. Not only that, it’s also the largest ever for an R-rated feature and the sixth-highest of all time, not adjusted for inflation.
That’s an epic win for the merc with the mouth and a big bounce back for Marvel Studios, which is coming off of its worst domestic performance ever with “The Marvels” last fall. The records will continue to fall this weekend as the Ryan Reynolds–Hugh Jackman buddy comedy heads toward one of the biggest domestic debuts of all time.
a ‘buddy cop’ comedy headlining the 2 comedic relief kings of the franchise? hell yeah
BUT this movie isnt big because marvel, its big despite it… hell IN spite of it
its not taking itself seriously at all, and everyone needs a good laugh. i just hope marvel doesnt think this means ‘superhero movies are back’ blech.
Considering all the jabs in the movie at how poorly marvel has been doing recently got plenty of chuckles from the audience, Marvel definitely needs to realize they still have a lot of work to do if they want to win back favor
It’s not complicated. Make good movies. If you can make two or three good movies a year, then make them. If making more movies means that the quality suffers, dial it back until the movies are good again.
The Post-Endgame movies have been middling to bad. I liked them more than most people did, but I recognize the flaws they have each had. Some were better than reviews would indicate, but none of them were without significant flaws. I actually think the D+ shows have been better than the movies (with some exceptions), but they were able to take more risks and do different things with better character arcs.
I think there are also two distinct groups of critics who have enjoyed the failures of Marvel more than they ever enjoyed comic book movies. First, you have the critics who don’t like comic book movies and hate-watch so they can be the critic to finally declare their demise. Second, you have bigots who complain about movies being “woke.” It’s easy to dismiss the latter, because they’re just hateful people undeserving of attention. It’s harder to defend mediocre movies against critics who are biased against superhero movies, because they’re not wrong when they complain about the quality of the movies. Quantumania did look unfinished, and even Paul Rudd Charm couldn’t fix that. Eternals was an overcrowded mess with the underpinnings of a decent tv series. Love and Thunder did wander into parody. The Marvels was anticlimactic and needed a better villain. Multiverse of Madness was probably my least favorite, but I think it should also have been a limited series. Wakanda Forever had to be done to honor Chadwick Boseman, but I’m hopeful Shuri passes the torch quickly and Namor comes back as a complicated anti-hero.
Shang Chi was a good movie except for the final dragon fight. Black Widow was also pretty good. No Way Home was basically fanservice for comic book movie enthusiasts, so if you didn’t like it, it just wasn’t made for you. GotG3 was probably the best of the bunch.
Audiences also want to lump in the trash from Sony and DC, but those are not MCU movies. Marvel hasn’t made the worst comic book movies of the last decade, and they are the only studio making some really good ones.
On balance, it’s a better batting average than most movie studios. The biggest mistake that Marvel made was trying to cram too many movies and shows into the calendar. I’m hopeful that Deadpool and Wolverine signals the beginning of some fresh stories and characters to fill out the space between crossover events.
Marvel superhero movies often don’t take themselves seriously to a fault.
But it’s a perfect fit for Deadpool.
Deadpool is proof that your megafranchise needs to have some R-rated movies.
Just a few, as a treat.
Cavill should produce his movie too. Get the studios execs out and just let the filmmakers who are passionate about their source material go all in. Glad it’s such a huge success.
Everyone should get all the studio execs out. Of every movie. Forever. And out of music. Let art be made by artists, and let the artists (and supporting crew) be the only ones who see any revenue.
So… something like Youtube?
Never before in history has it been this easy to produce art and distribute it to the world. But most people just use the technology to throw shit at one another.
Every article I see about this movie is about how much money it’s making and nearly zero things about the movie itself.
Reviewers were asked not to talk directly about the writing or characters, at least according to the review I heard on NPR a few days ago. Probably has a lot to do with it.
Isn’t that usually a sign of a bad movie? But this one is doing well so what gives? Why the gag order?
There are lots of cameos they are trying to keep secret I’d assume
Generally, bad movies won’t have pre-release reviews, period. I couldn’t tell you about this particular decision, though.
Disney’s gotta Disney.
Saw it Friday… thoroughly enjoyed it! Not something that’ll blow your mind writing-wise, mind you, but better than most of what MCU has been pumping out. The music fit well, the jokes were solidly done, and the cameos landed better than I expected. However, If you don’t care for excessive violence, coarse language (and wonton fan-service!) you may not enjoy it as much as me and my partner did. I’d recommend it in any case. Especially if it helps to motivate hollywood to make more R-rated marvel/DC/comic movies.
It’s part of the release cycle - you get casting news, then trailer and reveals to keep your interest, then the reviews drop and it’s on to the box office (the current stage). The problem is that any further discussion of the film is going to be loaded with spoilers and they will spoil your enjoyment of the film. However, it’s the Sunday of the opening weekend, so let’s open the gates of Hell! If people get angry at me, I’m blaming you.
That must be it, I completely missed the reviews wave.
But not, I hope, the bizarre speculation phase.
I missed that too. How interesting.
We’re now moving into the analysis stage.
