If you’re planning on seeing Deadpool this weekend, be prepared to wait in line. Just like with the film’s phenomenal international take, things are rolling hard stateside for this antihero.
The brand new Ryan Reynolds superhero flick raked in a monster $47.5 million on Friday, making it the highest-grossing, R-rated feature opening of all time. The total, projected to hit $130 million by the end of this long weekend, also places Deadpool among the top 10 comic book movie openings in history.
Deadpool made $12.7 million during Thursday night preview screenings, also a record for an R-rated flick. Its 84 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes suggests that good word of mouth is contributing to these astronomical financial figures.
If the projections come true, Deadpool will also set a new mark for the biggest President’s Day weekend gross in history, obliterating the record set a year ago by Fifty Shades of Grey, which made $93 million after a Valentine’s Day release.
Deadpool’s budget of $58 million in relation to its status as a smash hit make Fox’s decision to already give the green light to a sequel even more understandable. And Reynolds, jumping at movie stardom for ages, finally looks like he has it.
According to Variety, Friday’s other wide releases, Zoolander 2 and How to Be Single, are each expected to earn between $15 and $20 million for the long weekend.
(via IGN)
