Information surrounding the budget for Deadpool & Wolverine offers significant insight into what the MCU movie’s box office needs to be for it to break even. Deadpool & Wolverine is capitalizing on the incredible star power of its titular heroes as they leap from two successful franchises into the MCU. Marvel is also doubling down on this tactic by featuring several other returning characters from Fox’s X-Men franchise as cameos and co-stars. With the example set by Spider-Man: No Way Home, it stands to reason that this trip down memory lane should pay dividends.
This notion has certainly been supported by the evidence in the lead-up to Deadpool & Wolverine‘s release on July 26, 2024. The movie boasts the world record for the most-watched trailer in history, and early ticket sales support a positive prognosis for its financial future. Nevertheless, the amount spent on its production necessitates a significant return if it hopes to break even and, preferably, become profitable. In that regard, Deadpool & Wolverine has seemingly spared no expense.
Deadpool & Wolverine’s Budget Is Reportedly $200 Million
The budget for Deadpool & Wolverine is reportedly $200 million, according to Variety. This is about average for the MCU’s modern non-Avengers movies, with The Numbersputting it on a par with the Multiverse Saga’s biggest installments, including Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. This somewhat standardized budget for the MCU’s higher-profile movies helps to establish the kind of production value that can be expected.
The MCU’s biggest budget spend was for Avengers: Endgame which reportedly cost $400 million to make – but also raked in $2.7 billion worldwide.
On top of the budget is a reported marketing spend of $100 million. That Marvel spent half of the movie’s total budget on marketing is no real surprise given the immense level of publicity that has been seen throughout Spring and Summer 2024, which included myriad off-piste brand partnerships (such as the cheeky Xbox controller) and a sprawling press tour from the filmmakers. Given Marvel Studios is reeling from a historic box office flop in Fall 2023, it is safe to say that the pressure is on for Deadpool & Wolverine to stabilize Marvel’s bottom line.
Deadpool & Wolverine Needs To Make At Least $400 Million To Be A Box Office Success
According To Hollywood’s Double Budget Rule
This seems like an easy figure for Deadpool & Wolverine to achieve. By this rough metric, the MCU has only released three flops: The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow, and The Marvels. The reasons for their suboptimal performances are myriad, but it is safe to say that the fervor surrounding Deadpool & Wolverine sets it in good stead to break even at least. This is also supported by box office projections.
How Much Deadpool & Wolverine Is Projected To Make At The Box Office
It was recently reported by Deadline that Deadpool & Wolverine is set to make $360 million globally in its opening weekend alone. Given the movie added to its record-breaking streak by selling the most pre-sale tickets for an R-rated movie in history, it is already on the right path to reaching this figure. Incidentally, hitting a $360 million opening weekend would award Deadpool & Wolverine with a record-breaking trifecta as it would be the biggest opening weekend for an R-rated movie of all time, a record previously held by 2016’s Deadpool.
On that note, Deadpool’s proven box office performance further suggests that Deadpool & Wolverine will easily break the $400 million required. If this projection is accurate, the movie has the potential to do so in the first weekend alone, depending on how much momentum positive reviews bestow between July 26–28. In fact, there are signs that Deadpool & Wolverine could become the MCU’s next billion-dollar movie, following Spider-Man: No Way Home and threatening the record set by Joker for being the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time.
