‘Deadpool’ Vs. ‘Passion Of The Christ’ Box Office: R-Rated Record In Reach

Deadpool‘s box office numbers continue to improve despite a slip to third place over the weekend, and now it has a pretty huge record in its sights: The highest grossing R-Rated film of all time in the domestic (U.S.) market.

Oddly enough, it is a title the Ryan Reynolds-starring vehicle will have to take from none other than Jesus Christ himself.

The Passion of the Christ was the first film based on the Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth to take the “hard-R” approach to storytelling.

Writer-director Mel Gibson came under heavy fire from Jewish groups for striking what some called an “anti-Semitic” tone, but the film scored big with evangelical Christians and largely benefitted from a grassroots campaign in which Gibson toured the film for Protestant Christian leaders, who gave it their stamp of approval.

Rather than take the story at its tamer apostolic Gospel descriptions, Gibson incorporated physician theories based on historical descriptions of the Crucifixion and added in some of the more horrific imagery from the writings of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich for a dark and brutally violent take on the story.

As a result, Gibson was able to make the film on a relative micro budget when compared to most mega-blockbusters ($30 million altogether).

The U.S. box office take clocked in at a staggering $370 million, which is $20 million higher than No. 2 on the all-time list, American Sniper. Meanwhile the film picked up an additional $241 million overseas for an overall take of close to $612 million.

Deadpool‘s box office numbers have been quite impressive, and if the film stays in theaters long enough, it will likely overtake American Sniper. The task of taking down The Passion of the Christ will be a bit more difficult, as it will have to gross around $60 million more in the U.S. for the rest of its run.

In its latest full weekend, Deadpool is pulling in $16.4 million.

Of course, whether it ends up beating Passion or not, Deadpool is unlikely to best the accomplishment of Gibson’s film when adjusting for inflation, as it sits at $518 million when adjusted from 2004 to 2016 numbers, according to Box Office Mojo.

That said, Deadpool does have bragging rights when it comes to overall figures, sitting at $673 million worldwide after just 24 days in wide release.

The likelihood of it hitting the $1 billion mark is not as great since theatrical films are faster burns, and it appears to be slowing down in the U.S.

If it did get there, it would require some significant additional help from foreign markets. But on a $58 million budget, it is unquestionably an unexpected smash hit for distributor Fox and for Reynolds, whose performance has been said to have the same effect that Robert Downey, Jr.’s did on both the star and the character when he stepped into the role of Iron Man for the first time.

When Downey, Jr., took on Iron Man, he was a character primarily known to comic book readers. He had not taken on the mainstream stature that he enjoys today.

Reynolds had a similar task to overcome with Deadpool, made even more difficult by the fact that Fox allowed Reynolds and company to go through with a graphically violent and nudity-filled R-Rated version of the character.

This is normally a disadvantage for films, but Deadpool was able to rise above and currently rests at No. 85 on the all-time worldwide chart.

The only R-Rated film ahead of it in this particular grouping is The Matrix Reloaded, which grossed a total of $742.1 million worldwide. Deadpool would have to gross an additional $69 million in both domestic and foreign to overtake it.

Did you see Deadpool? Do you think it’s worthy of being the No. 1 R-Rated film of all time? Sound off in the comments section.

[Image via Deadpool screen grab]