DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE won the box office battle for a third consecutive weekend with an additional $54.2M in ticket sales. Coincidentally, star Ryan Reynolds faced off against his actress wife Blake Lively in the opening of her latest film IT ENDS WITH US.
The overall weekend box office rose to $158.6M, which compares to $111.9M on the same weekend last year when BARBIE led the way with $33.8M in its fourth weekend.
DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE’s 17-day total has shot up to $494.3M domestic and $1.019B worldwide. This sets a new box office record for an R-rated movie in the domestic market, outpacing THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST which earned $370.8M in 2004.
By next weekend, D&W should become the top-grossing R-rated movie of all time globally, exceeding JOKER’s $1.064B in 2019. In addition to these records, the movie has gone far beyond the two earlier movies in the DEADPOOL franchise.
DEADPOOL FRANCHISE BOX OFFICE RESULTS
- DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE (7/26/2024) – Opening Domestic $211.4M, 17-Day Total $494.3M, 3rd Weekend Drop 44%, Budget $200M, RT Critics/Audience 78%/95%
- DEADPOOL (2/12/2016) – Opening Domestic $132.4M, 17-Day Total $285.3M, 3rd Weekend Drop 45%, Total Domestic $363.1M, Budget $58M, RT Critics/Audience 85%/90%
- DEADPOOL 2 (5/18/2018) – Opening Domestic $125.5M, 17-Day Total $254.5M, 3rd Weekend Drop 47%, Total Domestic $324.6M, Budget $110M, RT Critics/Audience 84%/86%
This year’s #1 movie has a lot of running room remaining before its stay in theatres is over. Its worldwide box office is already almost 5 times the amount of its production budget, multiplying out to massive profits for Disney. If the decision to have Deadpool team up with Wolverine was this successful, might we look forward to other superhero combinations on the horizon? Superman and Batman? Spider-Man and King Kong?
Sony’s romantic drama IT ENDS WITH US opened this weekend with a very strong $50.0M box office, landing it in second place. This is a screen adaptation of the best-selling 2016 novel by Colleen Hoover, starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, who also directs the film.
The story centers on Lily Bloom (Lively), who moves to Boston to pursue a lifelong dream of opening her own business. A chance meeting with a charming neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni) sparks an intense romance, but as the two fall in love, she sees echoes of unpleasant dynamics in her parents’ relationship.8
The critics have not warmed to the story, giving it only a 59% score on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences are seeing it differently, giving it a very strong 94% rating. As always, the audience score is much more indicative of results at the box office.
This picture rests on the shoulders of Blake Lively, who rose to stardom in her role as Serena van der Woodsen on the teen-focused TV series Gossip Girl from 2007-2012. Lively may have felt that she had something to prove with this new release, coming after a box office disappointment from her last movie, the 2020 thriller THE RHYTHM SECTION. That movie received mixed reviews, with critics mostly supportive of Lively’s performance but uninspired by the movie overall.
It flopped at the box office, with its $2.7M opening weekend setting a new record as the lowest-grossing debut for any movie opening on 3,000 screens or more. Two weeks later, Paramount pulled it from 2,955 locations, the largest ever one-week drop in screens. After earning only $6M worldwide, THE RHYTHM SECTION is estimated to have lost $30M – $40M.
On the other hand, Lively’s movie career has also included quite several commercial successes.
BLAKE LIVELY’S HIGHEST GROSSING MOVIES
- GREEN LANTERN (6/17/2011) – Opening Domestic $53.2M, Total Domestic $116.6M, Total Worldwide $237.2M, Budget $200M, RT Critics/Audience 25%/45%
- THE TOWN (9/17/2010) – Opening Domestic $23.8M, Total Domestic $92.2M, Total Worldwide $154M, Budget $37M, RT Critics/Audience 92%/85%
- THE SHALLOWS (6/21/2016) – Opening Domestic $16.8M, Total Domestic $55.1M, Total Worldwide, $119.1M, Budget $17M, RT Critics/Audience 79%/59%
- A SIMPLE FAVOR (9/10/2018) – Opening Domestic $16.0M, Total Domestic $53.3M, Total Worldwide $97.6M, Budget $20M, RT Critics/Audience 84%/73%
- SAVAGES (7/6/2012) – Opening Domestic $16.0M, Total Domestic $47.3M, Total Worldwide $82.5M, Budget $45M, RT Critics/Audience 50%/54%
- IT ENDS WITH US (8/9/2024) – Opening Domestic $50.0M, Budget $30M, RT Critics/Audience 59%/94%
IT ENDS WITH US has produced the second-highest opening of her career, only behind her co-starring role with Ryan Reynolds in the 2011 DC superhero movie GREEN LANTERN. With a modest production budget of $30M, IT ENDS WITH US will be a very profitable project.
Lively is already at work on A SIMPLE FAVOR 2, a sequel to Lionsgate’s comedic crime thriller A SIMPLE FAVOR from 2018. If it seems as though Reynolds and Lively are Hollywood’s leading power couple, it’s probably because they are.
TWISTERS finished in third place, adding $15M and dropping 34% from last weekend. Its 24-day totals are $222.3M domestic and $305M worldwide. We estimate that the action thriller will finish up with a total of $250M domestic and $345M worldwide.
For exhibitors, TWISTERS has been a perfect complement to a satisfying summer lineup, but for Warner Bros., it may only be a breakeven proposition since a sizeable $155M was invested in its production. Because the movie relies on expensive special effects, the chance of seeing more movies on the series may be slim.
Lionsgate’s BORDERLANDS finished in fourth place by earning $8.8M in its opening weekend. The film is directed by Eli Roth (THANKSGIVING) and has an ensemble cast led by Cate Blanchett and Kevin Hart. The screenplay was adapted from a highly successful 2009 first-person shooter video game set in outer space with a Western flair. As of 2022, over 77 million copies of Borderlands games have been sold worldwide.
In August 2015, Lionsgate announced its intention to create a feature film based on the game. It took almost 10 years to move the project from concept to the big screen. The action follows a ragtag team of misfits on a mission to find and save a missing girl who holds the key to wielding unimaginable power.
The movie has been slapped with a shockingly low critics score of 10% on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences have been almost as disappointed, with a not-so-fresh 51% rating. Lionsgate had hoped to create a franchise from these characters and spent a sizeable $120M in production. While the cast is led by Cate Blanchet, her presence is not a guarantee of box-office success.
Kevin Hart and Jack Black were added to the cast to broaden its appeal. With a domestic opening of only $8.8M and terrible reviews, this movie will wind up as a huge swing and miss for Lionsgate, without any chance of coming close to the $300M in worldwide box office that it would require to break even.
DESPICABLE ME 4 finished in fifth place, adding $8.0M and dropping 30% from last weekend. This brings its total box office to $330.3M domestic and $779.0M worldwide. We estimate that its final worldwide box office will reach $825M, which would be more than 8 times the $100M spent on its production.
The DESPICABLE ME/MINIONS franchise continues to be one of the most successful of all time, with a total worldwide gross of more than $5.3B for the six movies, on a combined production budget total of only $479M. This adds up to a handsome 11X multiple for the entire franchise.
Where Are We as of 8/8/2024
After 31 weeks, the 2024 year-to-date box office is 82% of 2023 totals and 71% of 2019 totals at this same point in the year.
