Disney’s ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Breaks Records as Highest-Grossing R-Rated Film

The trio of Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Jackman and Shawn Levy have had a big hit with Deadpool & Wolverine.

As of Thursday, the Disney and Marvel film had overtaken Warner Bros.’ Joker as the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time.

With $516.8 million in domestic ticket sales and $568.8 million from international audiences, ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ has grossed more than $1.085 billion worldwide. It’s worth noting that a sequel to Joker will hit theaters this October.

Not only does this performance demonstrate the resilience of the Marvel Cinematic Universe at the box office after a string of recent misfires, it also suggests that Marvel Studios can move into darker content in the future without alienating moviegoers.

“The success of their first R-rated film opens up a lot of opportunities for Disney and Marvel,” said Shawn Robbins, founder and owner of Box Office Theory. “It’s important to remember that the rating was organic and necessary for the characters. That’s helped audiences and fans respond so favorably. They knew going in that this wouldn’t be a watered-down translation of a formula which has already proven itself.”

Previous Deadpool films have been produced by 20th Century Fox and were also R-rated. When the loud-mouthed mercenary became Disney-owned in 2019, it was unclear whether Disney would embrace his fourth-wall-breaking irreverence or put him on hold while they produced other Marvel projects.

When Marvel boss Kevin Feige announced in 2021 that the third Deadpool movie would retain its R rating, there was a collective sigh of relief among MCU fans. Marvel also gave Reynolds and Levy more room to poke fun at company executives and the franchise as a whole, even using Frozen’s iconic line, “Do you want to build a snowman?” to reference drugs.

“Disney will probably be very selective in deciding what future films they’re comfortable with distributing under the more mature rating because they still have to consider their enormous family audience, as does Marvel, but this at least offers a blueprint of how and when it’s appropriate to do so,” Robbins said.

Deadpool & Wolverine hit theaters in late July after a string of hits and misses for one of Disney’s safest franchises. The studio’s last film was The Marvels in November, which had the worst opening and lowest box office gross of any MCU movie ever.

Now, there’s a renewed sense of confidence in the MCU, especially since Marvel used San Diego Comic-Con and Disney’s biennial D23 Expo to announce its upcoming film series and share exclusive footage.

Going forward, it appears the studio will limit the number of series it produces for its Disney+ streaming platform, focusing on the big screen. Until now, Marvel has produced more than a dozen shows for the streaming platform, flooding the market and alienating some fans.

Marvel plans to release six films over the next three years and three TV series in 2025: ‘Agatha All Along,” “Ironheart” and “Daredevil: Born Again.

Audiences at both Comic-Con and D23 cheered the Marvel programming announcements, a sign that interest in the superhero genre is not waning. That’s good news for the MCU, which has grossed more than $30 billion at the box office since the release of Iron Man in 2008.