The foul-mouthed, fourth-wall-breaking Marvel antihero Deadpool dominated the box office yet again over the weekend, racking up $55 million.
But after Deadpool grossed $163 million in less than a week-topping my favorites by a landslide-and everyone and their dog was telling me to go see it, I convened and dragged myself on over to Cinetopia; and holy shit, I’m so glad that I did.
“‘Deadpool’ has become a cultural phenomenon with all audiences that is resonating across the globe”, said Fox domestic distribution chief Chris Aronson.
Kung Fu Panda 3 held steady at number two with its $117.1 million total, up $12.5 million this weekend. “Risen” beat out the critically acclaimed horror flick “The Witch” as well as the Jesse Owens biopic “Race”.
The third and final new release of the weekend was the Focus drama Race, which stumbled right out of the gate with an estimated $7.2 million from 2,369 theaters for a sixth place finish.
In second place, the Chinese fantasy The Mermaid became the highest-grossing film in the country’s history after earning US$56 million.
“Risen” is directed by Kevin Reynolds (“Waterworld“) and follows the days after the crucifixtion of Christ as seen through the eyes of a non-believer, Roman Centurian Clavius (Joseph Fiennes) Tom Felton, Peter Firth and Cliff Curtis co-star.
For Deadpool, a movie that shouldn’t logically exist in the first place, Fox continues an impressive rise through the box office record books with its R-rated super-anti-hero action/comedy.
After just 10 days, “Deadpool” has grossed more money domestically than any of the other X-Men films did during their entire box office runs.
The Merc with a Mouth is now running ahead of Gibson’s Bible story over the same period of time – though comparing the audiences for the two films is pointless; they’re just different, simple as that – but it faces a lot of direct competition in the weeks ahead.
Not only that but a recent update on “Deadpool’s” worldwide earnings came in, stating that the February 12 movie premiere garnered a total of $491 million, making it the second highest grossing X-Men film after overtaking “The Last Stand”.
On the four-day President’s Day weekend, “Deadpool” has already earned a total of $150 million – over $50 million more than “Fifty Shades of Grey’s” $93 million.
As Slash Film noted, Robert Downey Jr. delighted Deadpool and Avengers fans by referencing “what is probably the best recurring joke in The Avengers: Age of Ultron” and giving everyone a good laugh in the process. “Zoolander 2”, $5.5 million; 8.