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Deadpool (movie)

'Deadpool' kills with record $135M weekend at box office

Bryan Alexander
USA TODAY
Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) pauses during a life-and-death battle. The R-rated 'Deadpool' opened with a record-setting $135 million weekend.

Time to crack open the celebratory cheap wine for Deadpool, which soared to a head-turning, historic opening weekend at the box office with $135 million, according to studio estimates.

The R-rated superhero movie, featuring Ryan Reynolds as Marvel's foul-mouthed, irreverent Deadpool, set a slew of new records: the biggest R-rated opening (beating 2003's The Matrix Reloaded, which opened with $91.8 million), the biggest February weekend and biggest President's Day four-day weekend (beating 2015's Fifty Shades of Grey,with $85.2 million for the former and $93 million for the latter). 

Deadpool  is expected to take an overwhelming $150 million over the full four-day holiday weekend.

It's all shocking given the movie's restrictive R-rating and top-end projection of $90 million going into the weekend, says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore tracking service.

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"Deadpool just kept going up and up. Obliterating expectations just doesn't cover this," he says. "And rather than hurting, the R-rating actually helped. It made the film an edgy, must-see superhero event."

The victory is especially sweet for Reynolds, who worked for 11 years to bring the wisecracking character to the big screen and suffered a superhero setback with his 2011 flop Green Lantern, a portrayal even Reynolds mocked in Deadpool.

 

Ryan Reynolds finally serves up his 'risque,' odd 'Deadpool'

 

Deadpool  was a hit on every level, scoring 84% critical approval on review aggregate site RottenTomatoes.com and an A from audiences on CinemaScore. Producer Simon Kinberg told USA TODAY Friday that he sent a special gift to Reynolds and his co-stars to celebrate: boxed white wine.

"It's more in keeping with Deadpool, who is not going to drink champagne," Kinberg said. "So we had (terrible) boxed wine sent to these guys for the weekend. It was either that or wine coolers. Keeping it classy."

Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds, right) readies for confrontation, joined by Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand).

Deadpool  laid waste to the other major film openings, which included Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson's Zoolander 2 and Rebel Wilson and Dakota Johnson's How to Be Single.

Second place for the weekend went to Jack Black's family-friendly animated Kung Fu Panda 3,which made $19.7 million ($93.9 million total after three weeks of release). Panda 3 is projected to pass the $100 million mark at the end of the four-day weekend.

How to Be Single took third with $18.8 million. The story of New Yorkers dealing with single life scored a low 47% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a B on CinemaScore.

Zoolander 2, which brought back Stiller and Wilson's famed male models from 2001's Zoolander, ended in a catwalk stumble and a disappointing fourth with $15.7 million. Jeff Bock, box office analyst for Exhibitor Relations, says the other new movies were run over by the runaway Deadpool train.

"There wasn't any room in the media or the national conversation for anything other than Deadpool," Bock says

Review: 'Zoolander 2' is a very bad look

 

 

Zoolander 2 didn't help matters by landing a paltry 23% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a C-plus grade on CinemaScore.

Leonardo DiCaprio's starring turn in the awards contender The Revenant rounded out the top five with $6.9 million for $159.2 million total after eight weeks.

Final numbers are expected Tuesday.

 

Derek (Ben Stiller, left) and Hansel (Owen Wilson) take Rome in 'Zoolander 2.'

 

 

 

 

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