With around $925 million in global receipts as it enters its third weekend, Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine is taking its superhero road trip to another record level as it celebrates becoming the second $1 billion box office earner of 2024. Inside Out 2 is the only other film this year to have accomplished the feat. Director Shawn Levy’s Deadpool & Wolverine, which only needs roughly $37 million from the domestic and international box offices this weekend, should easily surpass those estimates with at least $55 million from North American ticket sales alone, plus another $60 million or more from foreign markets. With Saturday’s box office, Deadpool and Wolverine should cross the $1 billion mark.
That should put the Ryan Reynolds (who co-wrote with Levy) and Hugh Jackman superhero buddy film to at least $1.03 billion by the end of business Sunday. Deadpool & Wolverine is already the most anticipated live-action film of 2024, followed by Dune: Part Two. Inside Out 2, also from the Disney studios, is by far the most successful picture of the year, grossing $1.56 billion and counting. This gives Disney two billion-dollar performers so far this year.
While it presently sits at $1.56 billion globally, Inside Out 2 appears to add another $20-30 million to that cume, making a shot at (but probably falling short of) $1.6 billion — unless it continues to overperform as it has throughout its run. In that situation, Pixar’s animated smash sequel is still likely to perform better.
Deadpool & Wolverine will become the 11th-highest grossing Marvel Studios production in the company’s 17-year history, and it will climb another notch on that list before its theatrical run ends. I have separate coverage this weekend of Deadpool & Wolverine’s ranking among the rest of the MCU billion-dollar earners. Deadpool & Wolverine is also climbing the R-rated box office charts, where it is set to become the second-highest grossing film behind 2019’s Joker, and it will eventually take the top spot. You can read more about that, plus a lot more R-rated superhero films. 
Meanwhile, the PG-13 Borderlands, based on Gearbox Software’s video game series, scored poorly in previews Thursday, grossing just over $1.3 million, and heading into a weekend that appears to be a disaster at the box office for the potential franchise starter. On track for only around $10-12 million, the film was actually positioned nicely to play as a PG-13 option for older kids and teens who can’t get into Deadpool and Wolverine and have already seen Inside Out 2. But it’s no longer enough to slap a brand name on an adaptation with a lot of CGI and a few celebrity names on the billboard and expect people to show up. I haven’t watched Borderlands, so I can’t attest to the quality, but
The film now has a 10% Rotten Tomatoes rating (indicating 90% of critics labelled it “Rotten”), and audience rankings from other metrics are also bad.
When critics and audiences agree that a film isn’t very excellent and not worth recommending, it’s unlikely to do well. I don’t like seeing anyone’s art fail, and we all want theatres to thrive, but there’s no point in denying what’s going on or why, as we examine the box office. So, while Borderlands was never a major danger to Deadpool & Wolverine’s box office success, the film’s slip is excellent news for the MCU, as it helps the super-sequel exceed $1 billion. So, while Borderlands was never a major danger to Deadpool & Wolverine’s box office success, the film’s slip is excellent news for the MCU, as it helps the super-sequel exceed $1 billion. Alien: Romulus is the next possible theatrical rival, releasing next weekend as another R-rated sequel with a lot of buzz and audience expectations. However, even if it wins the weekend box office and pushes Deadpool & Wolverine to second place, it is another Disney studio family film, so they are all on the same box office team.
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