'Deadpool' slays 'Gods of Egypt,' but he's not bigger than Jesus yet
Mortals and immortals alike are no match for Deadpool's combat skills, mutant healing factor and fourth wall-breaking sense of humor.
The Fox/Marvel collaboration wins the top spot again in its third weekend at the box office with an estimated $31 million in ticket sales. It was enough to shove the just-released big-budget blockbuster Gods of Egypt into a second place finish for its debut.
You May Also Like
Lionsgate can't be happy with Gods opening weekend standing, though the dissatisfaction likely has less to do with rankings and more to do with the paltry $14 million estimated take. That's peanuts for a movie said to be budgeted at around $140 million.
It doesn't help that Gods of Egypt has been dogged for months by negative press, primarily due to the perceived "whitewashing" of its cast. The ancient Egypt-set film stars Gerard Butler and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau -- i.e. two white dudes -- as the Egyptian gods Set and Horus.
The whiteness of the cast -- Chadwick Boseman and Elodie Yung are the only non-white leads -- drew comparisons between Gods of Egypt and the 2015 box office flop, Exodus: Gods and Kings, which was also accused of whitewashing.
Meanwhile at number one, Deadpool continues to give zero f*cks about any competitors, more than doubling the Gods box office and inching ever-closer to the all-time box office record for an R-rated release.
The top-grossing film on that list is The Passion of the Christ (2004), with a $370 million domestic take. Deadpool's estimated domestic total of $285 million sits at number three, behind American Sniper ($350 million).
There was a time when Gods of Egypt slotted into the same President's Day weekend release that Deadpool and Zoolander 2 did. Lionsgate eventually pushed the release back to Apr. 2016 before bringing it back to Feb. 26, giving the President's Day releases two weeks to breathe.
That clearly wasn't enough, though some might argue that no amount of time would have helped resuscitate Gods. BoxOffice predicted a $14.5 million opening weekend for the Lionsgate blockbuster back in January, and most estimates in the weeks that followed hovered around the same place.
The Gods shortfall could spell a one-two punch for Lionsgate and Butler both at the box office. The studio's Butler-starring London Has Fallen -- a sequel to 2013's Olympus Has Fallen -- debuts on Mar. 4, one week after Gods.
If London topples Deadpool next week -- which it has a good chance of doing -- the victory probably has more to do with the Marvel movie's natural box office drop-off. Deadpool opened at $152 million, then slipped to $56 million, then (this week's) $31 million.
With $15-20 million the likely window for Deadpool's fourth weekend, London has an opportunity to step up and deliver a win for Lionsgate. Olympus Has Fallen opened at $40 million in 2013, ahead of Oz the Great and Powerful, which was in its third weekend at the time (with a $186 million total domestic box office).
The fall-off for Deadpool so far seems to indicate that Passion's record will remain secure, especially as the movie vies against both newcomers at the box office and high-profile home entertainment launches like Fuller House (Feb. 26) and Daredevil: Season 2 (Mar. 18).
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
Topics Film
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
