Over the weekend, the sequel to 2016’s first installment in the Deadpool franchise passed a milestone that would no doubt elicit a joyful wisecrack or two from the delightfully profane Merc with a Mouth.
The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Deadpool 2, including the re-cut PG13 version Once Upon a Deadpool, has now passed $784 million at the global box office. The sequel hit that mark over the Super Bowl weekend, making it 20th Century Fox’s highest-grossing X-Men title now that it’s edged past the previous record-holder. Which, by the way, is a reference to the first Deadpool movie, which raked in $783 million globally.
The sequel owes its success to the holiday-themed remake. From THR: “Prior to December, Deadpool 2‘s global box office tally clocked in at around $738 million. This got a boost from Once Upon a Deadpool, a Christmas-themed version of the sequel that used The Princess Bride (complete with Fred Savage) as a framing device. It also helped that the film, directed by David Leitch, received a release in China, which did not screen the R-rated version when it arrived last year.”
Once Upon a Deadpool has garnered more than $45 million in ticket sales. THR reports that most of that has come from China, where Deadpool 2 earned more than $40 million pretty quickly. Also worth noting is that Reynolds himself made an appearance in China to promote the sequel ahead of its debut, and the family-friendly re-cut is what allowed the movie to play there, while the first installment never did.
Deadpool 2 first opened in theaters in May 2018 with a story focused on Deadpool/Wade Wilson putting together a crew of heroes after the death of his girlfriend, played by Morena Baccarin.
As we noted in our earlier coverage of the remake, Once Upon a Deadpool also included a charitable component. For every new Deadpool 2 ticket sold, $1 was allocated to the charity Fudge Cancer — “previously known as F*** Cancer,” the movie announcement notes, adding that the charity “graciously changed their name to be more PG-13 friendly for the 12 days of Once Upon A Deadpool’s release.”
