Deadpool & Wolverine beats box office record

Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine had an impressive opening weekend in the US, the eighth biggest opening of all time and the best opening of the year so far. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the third installment of the Deadpool series, starring Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, grossed $205 million (£160 million) at the domestic box office.

It also became the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time, beating the previous record of $134 million set by the first Deadpool film in 2016. Internationally, the film grossed $233 million (£182 million). This is a marked contrast to last year’s The Marvels, which grossed just $47 million (about £38 million) in its first weekend in the US, the lowest opening for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Reynolds thanked fans for coming to see the film on Instagram, saying its success was “pretty hard to swallow.” In the film, Deadpool tries to escape his superhero past. But his peaceful life is thrown into chaos when the MCU’s Time Variance Authority (a group tasked with balancing the multiverse’s dizzying timelines) goes out of control.

Her company subordinate Mr. Paradox, played by Succession’s Matthew Macfadyen, secretly tries to recruit Deadpool to sacrifice Deadpool’s world to protect the “sacred” timeline at the heart of reality. He refuses, dragging a reluctant, still-living Wolverine into his own timeline to save the day. Though reviews were mixed, many called the film a much-needed shot in the arm for Marvel.

The film is also packed with Marvel cameos. The Guardian’s three-star review said the film “revitalized the MCU” and that Deadpool got the joke about his savior complex “basically right.” Variety praised the “glorified” fan service of Deadpool and Wolverine as a “welcome change” to 15 years of MCU mayhem, even if the special effects and action scenes don’t always match up to the 2018 sequel. When asked about the possibility of a future spinoff between the pair, Reynolds told the BBC, “I’m very happy to be making a film that’s just a film in itself.”

‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ are not commercials for another movie. It’s not part of my DNA.” Last week Taylor Swift, a friend of Reynolds and his wife Blake Lively, said Reynolds had done “the best work of his life” and urged people to go to the movies. After its biggest opening weekend so far this year, Pixar’s Inside Out 2 continues to dominate the box office, having grossed over $1.5bn (£1.1bn) worldwide.

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