Box Office: 'Deadpool 2' Sets New Opening Weekend Record For Comedy Sequels by $125 million earned

20th Century Fox’s Deadpool 2 earned $125 million over its opening weekend, putting it between It ($123m) and Deadpool ($132m) among R-rated openers. Yes, it still trails the original Deadpool’s $141m adjusted-for-inflation debut (ditto Matrix Reloaded’s $139m adjusted-for-inflation launch), and it’s a 5% decline from the first film’s debut. But, truth be told, when you open with $132m the first time out, there’s only so much higher you can go. If we look at it as a comedy sequel, as opposed to a superhero sequel, it’s a huge triumph.
There are breakout comedy sequels to leggy/well-liked originals that themselves opened well. Think American Pie 2, Hangover part II or 22 Jump Street, which opened well above their respective predecessors. But the realm of comedy sequels is littered with second installments, including some very good second installments, that played much worse than their predecessors. Think Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Addams Family Values or Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising. That Deadpool 2 opened more like Ocean’s Twelve (about the same opening weekend as Ocean’s 11) than Ted 2 ($33m vs the $53m-opening Ted) counts as a win.

Deadpool earned the second-biggest R-rated opening weekend ever, the second-biggest Fox opening weekend ever and the second-biggest debut for a Marvel Comics adaptation that wasn’t part of the MCU (behind Spider-Man 3’s $151 million launch in 2007). It’s the biggest opening weekend ever for a comedy sequel, above even the adjusted-for-inflation launch ($66m in 2001/$109m adjusted) of Rush Hour 2. Yes, the movie nearly doubled the $58m budget of its predecessor. $110m is still a steal for a big-scale comic book superhero sequel, and Fox and friends knew that they would get their money back quickly.

With $301 million worldwide, it’s the second-largest debut ever (behind Beauty and the Beast‘s $354m global launch) for a movie that isn’t rated PG-13. If you want to treat Deadpool 2 entirely like a comic book superhero sequel, the last two Dark Knight sequels might be a valid comparison. The Dark Knight Rises opened with $160m on its debut weekend, just above the $158m launch of The Dark Knight four years prior. The Batman v Bane epic made 16% less in North America ($448m) than the Batman v Joker classic ($534m). 84% of $363m would still be $305m domestic on a $110m budget.