LOS ANGELES -- Oh, hello.
I'm Deadpool 2, Deadpool 3, probably Deadpool 4 and -- hell, maybe even 5. I'll be at a theater near you in the coming years, because DID YOU SEE THAT BOX OFFICE RESULT?
Deadpool didn't just break through the fourth wall at theaters this long weekend -- he broke down just about everything standing in his way.
That includes the biggest February release ever (sorry Fifty Shades of Grey, $85 million just isn't twisted-sexy enough); the biggest three-day R-rated opening ever (sorry The Matrix Reloaded, $91.8 million is so 2003); and a spot in the pantheon of bigscreen heroes, as Deadpool cracked the seventh-biggest superhero movie of all time between Spider-Man 3 and Iron Man 2 (and Deadpool isn't even a superhero! Technically).
Just how big was it?
Fox’s "gamble" on a full-blown R-rated spandex-set movie was expected to make $150 million over the four-day frame (Friday through the Presidents Day holiday), just about doubling what were already pretty high expectations.
Even more impressive is that Deadpool was made for a budget estimated around $60 million -- less than half the normal buy-in for your typical superhero flick.
And to think, Fox spent six years NOT making this movie because it just wasn't sure there was an audience for something this gnarly, this koo-koo, this ... unique.
We all know the story by now: Ryan Reynolds, with help from true believers like director Tim Miller and Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld, lobbied to get a proper "Merc With a Mouth" movie in the works (I say "proper" because, well, there was that X-Men: Origins Deadpool debacle that we're just going to ignore).
It wasn't until Miller's VFX test footage leaked online in July 2014 to thunderous applause that the studio worked up the nerve to greenlight the project.
Fox's marketing took the ball and ran with one of the most innovative and relentless campaigns since Star Wars: The Force Awakens (OK, that was Disney and wasn't that long ago, but they are comparable so let's just go with it).
But really, marketing Deadpool wasn't much of an uphill battle: Marvel Comics sells more Deadpool than just about anything else; from his humble beginnings in 1991 as a guest character, he's now often Marvel's No. 1 seller, and sometimes appears in multiple titles and crossovers.
The also-rans
Oh that's right! There were some other movies that came out this weekend.
Let's see here -- Zoolander 2 ... $15.6 million for the 3-day weekend, about $18 million for the full holiday frame. Oof.
How to Be Single did a bit better, with $18.75 million for the R-rated rom-com starring Dakota Johnson, Alison Brie, Leslie Mann and Rebel Wilson that should come in around $21 million for the four-day holiday weekend.
Second place actually went to Fox’s Kung Fu Panda 3, which pulled down $19.65 ($26 million for the four-day) in its third weekend in release, putting it on pace to crack $100 million by the time we're all back at work.