Deadpool & Wolverine just sliced open an incredible box office opening, bringing in $96 million across 4,210 theaters between preview screenings and its Friday opening. That's the biggest opening day for an R-rated feature, and the sixth biggest of all-time, according to Variety.
That's higher than Inside Out 2's opening of $62 million. Inside Out 2 went on to cross $1 billion in just 19 days, and just this last week became the highest-grossing animated movie of all time.
In Thursday previews alone, Deadpool & Wolverine brought in $38.5 million, signaling an opening day and weekend that would break records. This is slightly more than Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($36 million) and just under Avengers: Infinity War ($39 million). Avengers: Endgame still holds the record for highest preview sales at $60 million.
Conveniently timed with San Diego Comic-Con this week, it feels like Deadpool & Wolverine has been everywhere the last few days. There were surprise guest appearances at the show, and we had a big interview with Kevin Feige about the film's irreverant poking at the tropes of the Marvel universe. We learned on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that the film originally had a different title - but everyone hated it. Then, on Hot Ones, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman revealed that the original idea for the movie involved shooting a fake movie called "Alpha Cop" that was "intentionally bad."
Fortunately, we thought what everyone ultimately came up with was pretty good. We gave Deadpool & Wolverine a 7/10 in our review, saying it's "an outrageous, consistently funny superhero comedy that succeeds largely thanks to the contagious enthusiasm of leads Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, and a surprisingly classy perspective on superhero movie history."
If you're trying to figure out how you, too, can watch Deadpool & Wolverine, we've got a handy guide right here.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
