Most box office reporting is just spin, but on occasion there is something genuinely newsworthy in the world of theatrical grosses. Any claims that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a box office success is a perpetuation of the studio’s damage control. Its actual figures from its opening weekend are lower than the initially announced estimates. And its true tally is a huge disappointment for what was once viewed as the most exciting venture in blockbuster cinema history, bringing together the iconic titular DC Comics heroes on the big screen for the first time.
Compare Batman v Superman‘s $166m to the $222m (adjusted for inflation) earned by The Avengers four years ago with historically less-famous characters united on film (last year’s less-popular sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron also performed better with $193m). Plus, Batman v Superman had one of the worst Friday-to-Sunday drop-offs ever — the worst for a superhero movie, in fact, worse than last year’s Fantastic Four. It happened in other parts of the world, too, including China. One analyst is predicting Batman v Superman could even fall below Man of Steel in both its domestic and global take. That’s pretty bad.
Let’s all just sweep the thing under the rug a moment, shall we? Let’s instead look at the truly remarkable box office success of Deadpool. Now, I’ll admit that its latest achievement, that it has broken the world record for highest-grossing R-rated release, is complicated and potentially misleading in its spin. All international numbers are to be taken with a grain of salt due to the ever-increasing global markets and audiences. But in this situation, the international numbers for previous record-holder The Matrix Reloaded are much higher than Deadpool‘s while the latter’s domestic gross wins without inflation adjustment, giving the appearance of a higher total.
Domestically, Deadpool still looks like it’s in third place for domestic R-rated grosses. However, again, that’s just unadjusted. Otherwise it’s 19th. No matter the adjustment, though, the movie holds the record for greatest domestic R-rated opening weekend. Of course, many of its competitors in that contest that wound up with more money in the long run were released at a time of fewer screens and more opening-weekend sell-outs as a result. Finally, like the excitement about Batman v Superman breaking records for March, Deadpool being the champ for February isn’t really a big accomplishment.
I have to clarify all the above, because I need to be realistic about both movies before addressing just how much greater the Deadpool situation is regardless of its obligatory spin. Go back just a few months and you’d have trouble finding anyone guessing Deadpool would be a big hit, let alone such an enormous success as it is. Or that it would be the more impressive box office story compared with Batman v Superman. There are actually good odds that Deadpool could even come out with higher numbers in all regards by the end of their respective theatrical runs. Not that it matters except for show, anyway. Costing only $58m versus Batman v Superman‘s $250m, Deadpool is already a clear winner in terms of its profit.
Did the positive reviews help in the success of Deadpool? I don’t think they necessarily made the movie a hit, but they surely aided in the initial buzz. That it has had legs, though, is more to do with it being an entertaining movie with positive word of mouth and a fun tone that welcomes repeat viewings for anyone looking for a good time. Similarly, but in an inverse manner, the negative reviews of Batman v Superman didn’t mean an immediate disaster for its opening weekend, because it was always going to do a lot of business pretty much on its title alone, though I do believe the critics crippled it somewhat. The movie’s lack of legs, due to bad word of mouth and its not being an enjoyable re-watch at all, will be its ultimate downfall.
At a time when movies are hyped to death for years leading up to their release and then quickly forgotten about right away, it’s interesting that Deadpool is still going strong at the box office and in the cultural conversation. But the latest superhero movie did hijack it’s attention for a moment, hopefully only a brief one. I’m already worn out from the discussion points regarding Batman v Superman on all fronts, yet I’m at least still enjoying the social media presence of Deadpool and whatever dialogue about the movie arises, seven weeks later.
So, now that the nightmare-filled nightmare of Batman v Superman has come and all but already gone, join me in getting back to celebrating and talking about Deadpool. At least for another six weeks until Captain America: Civil War arrives and distracts us once again. It will be interesting to see, given that Deadpool opened bigger than and has completely out-grossed both of the previous Captain America movies but also given the fact that Civil War is more like an Avengers movie and also has Spider-Man, if it still holds strongest. Probably not, but it will still remain the most astonishing and noteworthy superhero success of the year.
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