While the summer box office may have woken up late, like a student lingering in bed for the summer holidays, this year’s only Marvel Cinematic Universe release has certainly delivered some pep to the previously lagging box office and Disney’s MCU ambitions alike. Blake & Wang P.A.’s Brandon Blake, our expert entertainment lawyer Los Angeles, brings you the positively jubilant box office news in full.
Over a Billion Globally
Deadpool and Wolverine’s latest success was no real surprise to anyone monitoring box office figures. The film had already grossed $97M in its second weekend, with a 54% drop. While not quite the remarkable hold that Inside Out 2 had, at 34%, it is very in line with typical blockbuster openings and an impressive achievement all of its own. The film has already broken several noted records, especially for a wide release of an R-rated movie. The film stood at $395M domestically and $824M internationally as it went into the weekend. It has subsequently risen to $494.3M domestically and $535.1M internationally and seems still to have a lot of gas in the tank.
This also means that Disney can lay claim to all four of the top weekend box office totals of 2024 so far, including Inside Out 2’s spectacular run. If Deadpool and Wolverine continues to perform like this, it will be well on its way to the top R-rated box office release of all time. It could even rise to rival Inside Out 2 itself. Due to the higher ticket prices currently charged, it’s about $125M short of making the top 10 list, which is still topped by the remarkable $1.1B (adjusted) total of The Exorcist. We could even see some other studios embrace the R rating for high-end productions and blockbusters.
A Positive Weekend Overall
The overall box office was down about 3% from last year, which was the third weekend to benefit from the Barbenheimer hype and also showcased Meg 2: The Trench. Deadpool and Wolverine accounted for 55% of the weekend’s $171M total. Twisters and two other films also grossed over $10M a piece, and Twisters itself is continuing a strong run, now at $195M in its third weekend.
The thriller, Trap, from M. Night Shyamalan, was a new entry, taking home $15.6M in its first weekend despite a poor score with Cinemascore. Notably, the weekend’s other superstar, Neon’s Longlegs, suffered the same rating, and it doesn’t seem to have slowed it down at all. Longlegs is, in fact, now within $500,000 of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, a remarkable feat for a film with a fraction of its budget. Despite being in their seventh and fifth weekends, respectively, Inside Out 2 and Despicable Me 4 continue to hold strongly. Inside Out 2 fell less than 25%.
On the specialty market, Didiand Sing Sing both continue to hold well and have expanded with promising results. They are now playing in 47 and 18 theaters, respectively. Overall, this was a hint of the box office results we expected to see in 2024. May the upwards trend continue.