Support truly
independent journalism
Deadpool & Wolverine has clawed its way up in the box office to reclaim an impressive title from Joker.
The Marvel comic book sequel starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman took in $1.086bn (£839m) at the global box office after 23 days of release, overtaking 2019’s Joker as the highest grossing R-rated movie in history. That figure includes $516.8m (£399m) domestically in the US and $568.8m (£439m) internationally.
Directed by Todd Philips, Jaoquin Phoenix’s dark take on the Batman villain pulled in $1.078bn (£833m) by comparison.
Reynolds, who previously played Deadpool in the 2016 film and its 2018 sequel, reacted to the news on social media.
On Friday (16 August), Reynolds, 47, shared a post from Marvel Studios to his Instagram Stories. The post was a message from the company’s president Kevin Feige.
“It’s fantastic to see that audiences are loving this movie as much as we loved making it. All those conversations were worth it!” Feige wrote, thanking fans.
Deadpool previously achieved this milestone in 2016, when its first outing became the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time with £745m (£522m) in box office receipts.
Reynolds’ foul-mouthed mutant lost the title in 2019 when Joker – also R-rated – grossed $1.079bn (£833m).
Deadpool &Wolverine and Joker are the only two R-rated movies to have crossed the $1bn mark.
The news was originally released in a press release from Disney, which included other statistics including that Deadpool & Wolverine is the 31st Disney-owned movie to surpass $1bn at the global box office. It is the 11th movie to do so in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days
New subscribers only. £8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled
Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days
New subscribers only. £8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled
Third on the list is Christopher Nolan’s 2023 Oscar-winner Oppenheimer, which pulled in $974.5m.
Out of all the films released in 2024, Deadpool & Wolverine is now the second-highest-grossing film of the year, second only to Pixar’s family animation Inside Out 2.
Phoenix recently made headlines due to his abrupt departure from a gay romance film, which has reportedly sparked “huge outrage” in Hollywood and could lead to legal action.
The Joker star was set to lead the untitled detective love story, which he had brought to director Todd Haynes. Five days before production was scheduled to begin, however, he made the last-minute decision to drop out of the film due to “cold feet”, a source told Variety.
Meanwhile, Reynolds has become embroiled in ongoing drama surrounding the release of his wife Blake Lively’s film It Ends With Us.
Lively has been criticised by fans for her “tone deaf” handling of the press tour for a film about domestic violence. Read more about it here.
