‘Deadpool’ Box Office: $700M Closes In On R-Rated Movie Record

This weekend, Deadpool crossed a milestone in gross box-office sales worldwide. It now officially has $708 million in gross sales, creeping closer to the all-time record for an R-rated movie of $724 million. Comic Book reports that the current record was set in 2003 by the movie The Matrix Reloaded. Deadpool also surpassed Iron Man for gross domestic sales this weekend and is moving closer to the second highest-grossing movie domestically. That spot is currently held by American Sniper, with $350 million. Deadpool‘s domestic gross currently stands at $328 million. It’s expected to blow past Guardians of the Galaxy in the next week, which will make it second only to Spider-Man for non-sequel comicbook/superhero movies according to Forbes. The budget for Deadpool was $58 million, a budget that was lower than any of the X-Men, Iron Man, Avengers, or Captain America movies according to IMDb.

Deadpool is based on a Marvel Comics anti-hero. 20th Century Fox describes the movie as follows:

“This is the origin story of former Special Forces operative turned mercenary Wade Wilson, who after being subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopts the alter ego Deadpool. Armed with his new abilities and a dark, twisted sense of humor, Deadpool hunts down the man who nearly destroyed his life.”

Wade Wilson (aka Deadpool) is played by Ryan Reynolds. Also starring in the movie are T.J. Miller as Weasel, Gina Carano as Angel Dust, Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Morena Baccarin as Copycat, Ed Skrein as Ajax, and the voice of Serbian actor Stefan Kapicic as the mutant Colossus. Here’s a preview.

Ryan Reynolds played Deadpool in the 2009 film X-Men Origins: Wolverine and has been trying to get the character its own franchise ever since, according to a report from Variety. Reynolds’ character is irreverent and often breaks the fourth wall in Deadpool. These are things that bring a unique quality to the film, a quality fans seem to love. Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick wrote Deadpool. Reese had this to say about the experience.

“We were given license to be irreverent and silly and make pop culture references and break the fourth wall. The studio was extraordinarily supportive in giving us the leash to make fun of them and the previous movie. Ryan Reynolds was very supportive of us making fun of him and his career. He pushed for us to make fun of ‘Green Lantern.’ It was like we were teenagers and the adults were giving us the keys to the car and saying, ‘Drive as fast as you want.’ And I think that joy of being able to do whatever we wanted bleeds onto the screen a little bit.”

Asked about some of the content in Deadpool that some may find offensive, Wernick said:

“What’s great about Deadpool is he’s an equal opportunity offender. So I’m sure we overstepped the bounds in places but I do feel like what you’re seeing on the screen is a fairly unfiltered representation of what was in the script.”

Will there be a Deadpool 2? Variety asked the writers before the movie was released, and they indicated that, if Deadpool was a success, they would make Deadpool 2 a priority, indicating that they had already started talking about how to do it. They added that they spent six-and-a-half years working on Deadpool and had plenty of ideas for a sequel. Based on the huge success of Deadpool, we’re hoping we have news of a sequel to look forward to soon.

Deadpool is rated R for strong violence and language throughout, sexual content, and graphic nudity. You can read more about Deadpool on the movie’s website at Deadpool.com.

[Photo by Pool/Getty Images]