The box office gross for Deadpool & Wolverine has officially passed Joker for the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever. Audiences have been going in droves to see it since its release at the end of July. Joker grossed $1.07 billion at the box office in 2019 when it shattered all expectations with a $247 million opening weekend. Joker went on to win a Best Actor and Best Score Academy Award among nominations for Best Director, Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing.
That being said, we could be in for another R-rated showdown at the top of the list with the release of Joker: Folie a Deux later this year. The sequel to Joker stars Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga. It brings in one of the most popular DC Comics characters in Harley Quinn to show off their twisted love story.
Deadpool & Wolverine still has some legs in the international and domestic markets to bring it to something like $1.3 billion when it’s all said and done. That does make for a lofty target for Joker: Folie a Deux.
If that film cracks into the top R-rated list, that would make most of the top 10 of R-rated grossing films either Deadpool or Joker films.
Where Does Marvel Go From Here?
Deadpool & Wolverine brings Marvel back to a place they know pretty well over the past couple of years, the top of the box office. After some high-profile misses including Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Marvels, and the critical failure of Secret Invasion on Disney+, they had to go back to the drawing board. They devised the plan to only release one movie in 2024: Deadpool & Wolverine. The rest of their release schedule was retooled, including Captain America: Brave New World, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and other projects.
Marvel recently showed off their full theatrical plans for the future of theater and TV at both San Diego Comic-Con 2024 and D23 2024. They include Robert Downey Jr. returning to the MCU, but this time, as Doctor Doom, and not Tony Stark. It’s a gamble for the company, will audiences understand that he’s no longer Tony Stark? We’ll have to see how they handle it in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
Other than that, Marvel has Agatha All Along which is releasing in September 2024 on Disney+. The 2024 release schedule also included Echo in January 2024. The amount of releases has been a bit of a breath of fresh air for the company and its fans. We’ll have to see how it all turns out for the MCU starting in 2025.
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