Deadpool & Wolverine Passes The Passion of the Christ, Sets Domestic Box Office Record

Deadpool & Wolverine is now the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time at the domestic box office. Globally, it's still #3.

By Russ Burlingame

Deadpool & Wolverine's massive second weekend  officially pushed it past The Passion of the Christ to become the highest-grossing film of all time at the domestic box office. the movie, which has earned $395.6 million at the domestic box office, has also scored $428.5 million internationally, driving its global box office up to $824.1 million. That's enough to pass the first two Deadpool movies and take third place all time for an R-rated film at the global box office, behind Joker and Oppenheimer. The Passion of the Christ had held the record since 2004, when it became a cultural phenomenon and helped promote the idea of big-budget "faith-based" films.

Deadpool & Wolverine had previously scored Hollywood's biggest opening weekend since Spider-Man: No Way Home and one of the top ten biggest opening weekends of all time at the box office, earning over $204 million in North America and $483.3 million worldwide. Along the way, it sprinted past the previous record the highest opening ever by an R-rated movie, which was Deadpool with $132 million. Only nine movies have ever managed to open to over $200 million, and of those nine, six are Marvel movies and eight are Disney movies (the outlier being Jurassic World, which was distributed by Universal).

Hollywood has been in a bit of a slump in recent years, with numerous big-budget blockbusters failing to catch fire at the box office. While there have been some huge hits, Deadpool's opening weekend isn't just Marvel's biggest since 2021 -- it's also Hollywood's biggest opening overall since No Way Home. 

They needed Deadpool & Wolverine to be a success -- not just to counter the narrative that Marvel is in decline, but also because it was an expensive movie to make. This one reportedly cost $200 million, with another $100 million or so spent on marketing -- as opposed to the lean $58 million or so it cost to make the first Deadpool.

In Marvel Studios' Deadpool & Wolverine, Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) will change the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). The film also stars Matthew Macfadyen as Paradox, and Emma Corrin as Cassandra Nova, with the return of Deadpool alums Morena Baccarin as Vanessa Carlysle, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Karan Soni as Dopinder, Stefan Kapičić as Piotr Rasputin/Colossus, Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Rob Delaney as Peter, and Aaron Stanford is returning as Pyro from the X-Men film series.

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Kevin Feige, Ryan Reynolds, Shawn Levy and Lauren Shuler Donner produce with Louis D'Esposito, Wendy Jacobson, Mary McLaglen, Josh McLaglen, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, George Dewey and Simon Kinberg serving as executive producers. Deadpool & Wolverine is written by Ryan Reynolds & Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick & Zeb Wells & Shawn Levy. 

Deadpool & Wolverine was released exclusively in theaters on July 26th.

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