Deadpool Has Now Passed Iron Man At The Domestic Box Office

Deadpool has passed Iron Man at the domestic box office, earning $328 million so far in North America alone.

This makes Deadpool the third-highest-grossing "first chapter" of a franchise, behind only Spider-Man ($403 million) and Guardians of the Galaxy ($333 million).

It seems likely that Deadpool, which earned $3 million on Friday, will end up with a box office haul bigger than Guardians of the Galaxy, putting it behind only Spider-Man.

Spider-Man, of course, is on reboot #3, and continues to be one of the most popular and important superhero properties in Hollywood even after a pair of high-profile failures in Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

This is huge not only because Deadpool is a relatively unknown character to the general public -- as were Iron Man and the Guardians before their movies, really -- but because it now means two of the top three highest-grossing comic book origins of all time have taken place outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which runs counter to the frequent argument that superhero fatigue could set in if Marvel ever started to slow down.

Based upon Marvel Comics' most unconventional anti-hero, DEADPOOL tells the origin story of former Special Forces operative turned mercenary Wade Wilson, who after being subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopts the alter ego Deadpool. Armed with his new abilities and a dark, twisted sense of humor, Deadpool hunts down the man who nearly destroyed his life.