That sound you hear is the folks over at Disney popping a couple dozen bottles of champagne — Zootopia didn’t just open at number one at the box office, it had the biggest opening of any film in the history of Walt Disney Animation Studios, beating out 2014’s Frozen. Unfortunately, the rest of the newcomers didn’t fare quite as well, with London Has Fallen and Whiskey Tango Foxtrot limping into second and fourth place, respectively.
Deadpool demolished box office records, quickly becoming the biggest X-Men franchise film of all time and the highest-grossing R-rated film. It certainly wasn’t the first successful R-rated action comedy, but in terms of superhero films, Deadpool made a pretty major splash — which has fans wondering if we’ll see more comic book adaptations take the restricted rating route. While Warner Bros. appears to be open to the possibilities, there’s one studio that definitely won’t be taking a similar tack anytime soon…or ever.
Deadpool topped the box office for the third weekend in a row, which is an impressive feat for any movie…but it helps when all of your competition arrives with a thud. Gods of Egypt, Eddie the Eagle, and Triple 9 all flopped in their opening weekends, making the continued box office victory of Ryan Reynolds’ foul-mouthed superhero all the more staggering.
Deadpool ruled the box office for the second weekend in a row, following up its record-breaking opening with with a strong sophomore weekend that proved its initial success was no fluke. In fact, the three newcomers didn’t even stand a chance against this red-suited menace, as Risen, The Witch, and Race all found themselves punted further down the top 10.
The Deadpool Effect is now officially a thing. As many predicted and suspected following Deadpool’s surprising success at the box office this past weekend, movie studios would try to capitalize on the success of that film by making their superhero movies R-rated (ignoring the fact that that was just a very small part of why Deadpool was successful). Just this morning we brought you the news that the X-Force movie could be rated R and now comes word that Hugh Jackman’s still untitled final Wolverine movie (Wolverine 3? The Wolverine 2?) is being planned as an R-rated film.