Deadpool 2 rode a huge opening weekend to the top of the box office, and ended the three-week reign of Avengers: Infinity War as the weekend’s highest-grossing film. Although it fell short of the first film’s debut, Deadpool 2 could be on its way to a long run in theaters.
It fell short of pundits’ lofty predictions, but the opening weekend for Deadpool 2 was still huge, and more than enough to knock Avengers: Infinity War off the top of the weekend box office charts.
The sequel to 2016’s Deadpool raked in a not-too-shabby $125 million for its debut, falling short of the $135 million that box-office analysts predicted and just shy of the first film’s $132.4 million premiere, but still good for the second biggest opening weekend of all time for an “R”-rated movie. The two Deadpool movies now hold the top two spots on that list, and studio 20th Century Fox is almost certainly hoping to see Deadpool 2 maintain enough momentum to overtake 2004’s The Passion of the Christ and become the highest-grossing “R”-rated movie of all time in US theaters.
As it stands right now, the first Deadpool is the highest-grossing “R”-rated movie of all time worldwide, but fell $7.7 million short of passing Passion of the Christ. With Deadpool 2 matching its predecessor’s positive reviews from professional critics and audiences, there’s reason to believe it could hold on to pass the $370.7 million mark set by Passion with a strong, extended run in theaters.
Of course, that all depends on how it fares against Solo: A Star Wars Story when that much-anticipated movie premieres this upcoming weekend, and whether it can hold off the still-strong Infinity War in the weeks to come.
As for the rest of the weekend’s top ten movies, a pair of new comedies cracked the chart: Book Club and Show Dogs .
Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen star in Book Club, and the film — which follows a group of older women whose regular literary discussion group is up-ended when they decide to read Fifty Shades of Grey — earned positive reviews from audiences (to the tune of an A- grade on CinemaScore) despite middling reviews from critics .
Talking dog comedy Show Dogs received an even colder reception from critics, but was similarly well received (an A- grade) by audiences. Given that the film cost less than $7 million to make, its $6 million premiere actually isn’t all that bad, but it remains to be seen whether there’s anyone left who wants to see the movie after its first weekend in theaters.
Beyond the new releases, this was the first weekend since the premiere of Black Panther that the film didn’t make it into the top ten movies. Now in its 14th week, the Marvel Studios blockbuster is finally showing signs of slowing down. The film currently ranks as the third-highest-grossing film of all time in US theaters and the ninth-highest-grossing film of all time worldwide.
No matter how well Deadpool 2 did in theaters, the upcoming week is all about Solo: A Star Wars Story, which will almost certainly make Deadpool’s reign atop the box office a short one initially — but it remains to be seen how well the Star Wars prequel film will do in the long run. Also hitting theaters is the sci-fi film How to Talk to Girls at Parties, based on a story by Neil Gaiman; as well as James Franco’s post-apocalyptic adventure Future World.
