Box Office: ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Zooms to $97M Record-Making Second Weekend, Hits $824M Globally

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Elsewhere, ‘Twisters’ approaches $200 million as M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ opens in third place with $15.6 million and ‘Harold and the Purple Crayon’ washes out with $6M.

Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds in ‘Deadpool & Wolverine.’

20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios

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Deadpool really is Marvel’s Jesus, as the antihero like to call himself.

Deadpool & Wolverine continued make box office history and obliterate more records in its sophomore outing, zooming to a better-than-expected $97 million domestically — the eighth biggest second weekend of all time and the fifth biggest for an MCU title — for a 10-day North American total of $395.6 million. It fell a scant 53 percent, a notable feat.

Overseas was just as marvelous. The Marvel Studios and Disney tentpole earned another $110.5 million for a foreign tally of $428.5 million and $824.1 million. (Get ready for Deadpool & Wolverine to its membership card to the billion-dollar box office club within a matter of days.)

It achieved several key milestones. Marking another major feather-in-the-mask for star and franchise mastermind Ryan Reynolds, he Deadpool threequel supplanted Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ ($371.1 million) as the top-grossing R-rated movie of all time domestically, not adjusted for inflation.

It also has passed up the entire lifetime runs of the first two Deadpool films, both domestically and globally, after just two weekends in theaters. Deadpool‘s domestic earnings were $363.1 million for a global total of $782.6 worldwide; the second film’s domestic haul was $318.5 million for a worldwide total of $734.5 million.

And it shot up the list of top-grossing R-rated films worldwide to No. 3. Todd Phillips’ Joker is presently No. 1 at $1.064 billion, so it will take another week or so for Deadpool & Wolverine to overtake that film (bets are on the film to ultimately land in the $1.2 billion range). Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is currently at no. 2 globally for an R-rated film with $975.2 million.

Between summer wins including Inside Out 2 — which is the top animated film of all time with a running total of $1.56 billion — and Deadpool 3, Disney has become the first studio to cross the $3 billion mark in worldwide ticket sales.

Deadpool & Wolverine, directed by Shawn Levy and co-starring Hugh Jackman, is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition this weekend, although Amblin Entertainmen’s Twisters is holding its own.

Twisters, distributed by Universal domestically, dropped 37 percent its third weekend to $22.7 million for a domestic total of $195.6 million.

M. Night Shyamalan‘s Trap, starring Josh Hartnett, is opening in third place with an estimated $15.6 million, in line with expectations. Warner Bros. is distributing the thriller, which is battling generally meh reviews and a C+ CinemaScore.

Illumination and Universal’s animated event pic Despicable Me 4 crossed the $300 million mark domestically after earning another $11.3 million for a worldwide total of $752.2 million, while Pixar’s Inside Out 2 followed in fifth place with an estimated $6.7 million for a mega-global haul of $1.55 billion, the best showing of all time for an animated film.

The boom at the family box office didn’t apply, however, Sony’s new book-to-film adaptation Harold and the Purple Crayon, which opened in sixth place. The kids’ movie is looking at a dismal $6 million opening, despite an A- CinemaScore from those who did turn up. Critics, however, panned the pic.

Neon’s thriller Longlegs continued to scare up nice business, earning $4.4 million to place seventh and finish Sunday with a domestic total of $70 million, a huge sum for an indie film these days.

More to come.

8:29 a.m.: Updated with revised numbers.

This story was originally published August 3 at 10:21 am.

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