After what is perhaps one of the most extensive marketing campaigns ever for a movie, it looks like it's all about to pay dividends for 20th Century Fox.
Deadpool made $47.5m a the US box office on Friday, putting it on course for an estimated $130m opening weekend. Should those predictions come through, Deadpool will be among the top ten opening weekends for a comic book movie and will be the biggest opening weekend ever for an 'R' rated film. Initial estimates suggested that it would make a respectable $65m to $70m opening but they had to be revised significantly after Friday's gross came in.
With regards to competing with other superhero movies, Deadpool is set to have a bigger opening weekend than both Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Both of which would have been considered two of Marvel's bigger box office hits.
This is a huge victory for both Reynolds and Fox who spent over a decade deciding whether or not to make the movie because of the source material's R rating. Reynolds will be delighted with the results. The film had been a passion project for him ever since the disappointing manner in which the character was handled in X Men Origins: Wolverine though it wasn't easy for him to convince executives that a standalone movie with an accurate representation of the character would sell. When a sizzle reel made by Reynolds and director Tim Miller leaked online (to the delight of hardcore fans) it was enough to convince Fox to give them the modest (for superhero flick) budget of $58m.
After an opening weekend like this, it proves Fox were more than justified in their decision to green light a Deadpool sequel earlier in the week.
You can read our four star DeadPool review here.
Via THR
