'Once Upon a Deadpool' Box Office Counting Towards 'Deadpool 2' Overall Gross

The release of Deadpool 2 made a lot of money at the box office, just falling short of the first film's record-setting total for an R-rated release with $734.2 million. But now it has a second shot at surpassing the original with the PG-13 re-release.

20th Century Fox revealed they're counting the box office for the holiday-themed Once Upon a Deadpool as part of the overall gross for Deadpool 2, which opened to over $900,000 during its preview night on Wednesday.

It's an interesting strategy for the franchise, attempting to inflate the box office numbers with a different version of the same film. And if the movie happens net another $50 million, the franchise will top the record books yet again.

Once Upon a Deadpool has been marketed as a family-friendly version of Deadpool 2, with the title character kidnapping The Princess Bride star Fred Savage and forcing him into a situation where he's forced to relive the plot of the movie. The only catch is that this version has less violence and is sorely lacking in F-bombs.

While it might seem like a cheap move to inflate the box office total with a brand-new version of an R-rated film, it's exactly the sort of thing we'd expect Deadpool to attempt in order to get into the record books.

The plan for a family-friendly Deadpool movie apparently came straight from Ryan Reynolds and his production company at Maximum Effort, and it all came together just in time for a holiday release.

Franchise producer and X-Men: Dark Phoenix director Simon Kinberg credited the actor, writer, and producer of the franchise for bringing this PG-13 version together.

"Ryan Reynolds and his studio—but I will give credit to Ryan Reynolds more than anyone else—is extraordinary at figuring out ways to get around the system," Kinberg said. "And be clever, both in terms of getting attention when it comes to viral stuff and in terms of deflecting attention when it comes to something like this. In the same way that Beyonce and Kanye can drop an album out of nowhere, Ryan figured out a way to drop a movie out of nowhere."

Once Upon a Deadpool is now playing in theaters everywhere.