<p>Marvel Studios, trying to move past a pair of box office humiliations, deployed two of its most popular characters over the weekend and hit a mother lode.</p><p>The potty-mouthed Deadpool and hard-drinking Wolverine — packaged together for the first time on movie screens — were on pace to sell roughly $205 million in tickets in the United States and Canada, box office analysts said Sunday. <em>Deadpool & Wolverine</em> will easily set a record for the largest R-rated movie opening in Hollywood history, even when adjusting for inflation. The current record-holder, <em>Deadpool</em>” (2016), arrived to more than $175 million in today’s dollars.</p><p><em>Deadpool & Wolverine</em> was expected to collect an additional $233 million overseas, for a global total after only 3 1/2 days of play of roughly $438 million — a start on par with Marvel’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” (2022), which went on to sell about $1 billion in tickets.</p><p>Directed by Shawn Levy, <em>Deadpool & Wolverine</em> cost an estimated $320 million to make and market worldwide.</p>.Before you see ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ here’s a refresher.<p>Marvel badly needed a win. Two of its releases last year, <em>The Marvels</em> and <em>Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania</em>, disappointed at the box office, ending an unbroken 15-year winning streak for the boutique studio and beginning a period of intense Wall Street scrutiny. Marvel’s weakness played a role in proxy battles for Disney board seats earlier this year. (In the end, Disney fended off the activist investors, including Nelson Peltz, a founder of Trian Partners, and Ike Perlmutter, the former chair of Marvel Entertainment.)</p><p>Superheroes are not the sure things they used to be. DC Studios, part of Warner Bros. Discovery, is working on its fourth reboot strategy in eight years following disappointments like <em>The Flash</em>, <em>Aquaman</em> <em>and the Lost Kingdom</em>, and <em>Blue Beetle.</em> Sony has struggled with <em>Spider-Man</em> spinoffs like <em>Madame Web</em> and <em>Morbius</em>. The problem is that the movie and television marketplace is awash in the characters, and some of the most popular ones have already been fully exploited (at least for now).</p><p>Ticket buyers gave “Deadpool & Wolverine” an A grade in CinemaScore exit polls. About 97 per cent of fan reviews on RottenTomatoes.com, a review-aggregation site, were positive; only one Marvel movie, <em>Spider-Man: No Way Home</em>, has ever scored better by that measure.</p>
<p>Marvel Studios, trying to move past a pair of box office humiliations, deployed two of its most popular characters over the weekend and hit a mother lode.</p><p>The potty-mouthed Deadpool and hard-drinking Wolverine — packaged together for the first time on movie screens — were on pace to sell roughly $205 million in tickets in the United States and Canada, box office analysts said Sunday. <em>Deadpool & Wolverine</em> will easily set a record for the largest R-rated movie opening in Hollywood history, even when adjusting for inflation. The current record-holder, <em>Deadpool</em>” (2016), arrived to more than $175 million in today’s dollars.</p><p><em>Deadpool & Wolverine</em> was expected to collect an additional $233 million overseas, for a global total after only 3 1/2 days of play of roughly $438 million — a start on par with Marvel’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” (2022), which went on to sell about $1 billion in tickets.</p><p>Directed by Shawn Levy, <em>Deadpool & Wolverine</em> cost an estimated $320 million to make and market worldwide.</p>.Before you see ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ here’s a refresher.<p>Marvel badly needed a win. Two of its releases last year, <em>The Marvels</em> and <em>Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania</em>, disappointed at the box office, ending an unbroken 15-year winning streak for the boutique studio and beginning a period of intense Wall Street scrutiny. Marvel’s weakness played a role in proxy battles for Disney board seats earlier this year. (In the end, Disney fended off the activist investors, including Nelson Peltz, a founder of Trian Partners, and Ike Perlmutter, the former chair of Marvel Entertainment.)</p><p>Superheroes are not the sure things they used to be. DC Studios, part of Warner Bros. Discovery, is working on its fourth reboot strategy in eight years following disappointments like <em>The Flash</em>, <em>Aquaman</em> <em>and the Lost Kingdom</em>, and <em>Blue Beetle.</em> Sony has struggled with <em>Spider-Man</em> spinoffs like <em>Madame Web</em> and <em>Morbius</em>. The problem is that the movie and television marketplace is awash in the characters, and some of the most popular ones have already been fully exploited (at least for now).</p><p>Ticket buyers gave “Deadpool & Wolverine” an A grade in CinemaScore exit polls. About 97 per cent of fan reviews on RottenTomatoes.com, a review-aggregation site, were positive; only one Marvel movie, <em>Spider-Man: No Way Home</em>, has ever scored better by that measure.</p>