Ryan Reynolds Beats Joaquin Phoenix Led Joker and Keanu Reeves’ The Matrix With His R-Rated Deadpool & Wolverine

The other R-rated films better watch their backs as it looks like there is no stopping the ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ train.

There are still two months to go before the highly- anticipated Deadpool & Wolverine finally hits the theatres. Ever since it was announced that Ryan Reynolds would be coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Hugh Jackman would be reprising his Wolverine role, and that the film would be R-rated, fans’ excitement knew no bounds.

It was always quite clear that Deadpool & Wolverine was going to be the film that revived that theatres and now, it has been proven that the film is indeed a messiah. The Ryan Reynolds-starrer has set a new record by being the film that has the most first-day advance ticket sales, beating every R-rated movie that has ever been released.

Deadpool & Wolverine Has Already Begun Shattering Records

There was no doubt to the fact that Deadpool & Wolverine would be doing wonders at the box office. What we didn’t know was that the “wonders” would start so soon; two months beforehand, to be exact.

The CEO of AMC Theatres, Adam Aron, took to X where he proudly revealed that over 200,000 tickets have been sold for Deadpool 3. He added that this is “more Day 1 ticket sales at AMC than for any other R-Rated movie.”

Online ticketing service Fandango reported (via The Hollywood Reporter) that the first-day ticket sales for the upcoming film were the best of 2024, franchise-best, and of course, the best for an R-rated film so far. Deadpool 3 has officially begun beating films like The Matrix (1999) and Joker (2019) and it hasn’t even been released yet!

While there are no official announcements about how much money these sales brought in, THR was informed by insiders that the number is somewhere around $8-9 million. The publication also added that the Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman-starrer will go on to cross $100 million in its debut, something which a film is yet to achieve in 2024.

When combined together, Deadpool and Deadpool 2 made a total of $1.56 billion at the box office. We wouldn’t be surprised if Deadpool 3 singlehandedly crosses this number to become the next highest-grossing R-rated film of all time.

Speaking of highest-grossing R-rated films, Keanu Reeves’ The Matrix sits on the 25^th spot with $465 million while The Matrix Reloaded is at number 5 with $741 million in the bank. Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker is the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time with $1 billion at the bank. Other films include Deadpool ($782 million), Deadpool 2 ($785 million), Logan ($619 million), and more.

Ryan Reynolds Talks about Deadpool & Wolverine’s R-rating

Even though Disney decided to continue the trend of the Deadpool films by allowing Deadpool 3 to have an R-rating, fans are still a little concerned about whether or not it will match the pace of the other 2 films in terms of R-rated content. Well, they no longer have to worry about it as Reynolds himself has vouched for the film.

In a recent interview with Fandango, Reynolds stated that he was proud of Disney for taking such a huge step.

I hope it doesn’t sound condescending, I’m really proud of them for doing this. I think it’s a huge step for them. I mean, it adds a whole other color to this kaleidoscopic wheel that is that company and the different people that they have been entertaining forever.

He then added that even he was surprised to see that Disney was letting them “go as hard R.”

I was surprised though, that they let us go as hard R, but very grateful. I mean there’s no other way to do it. [The R rating] really [allowed] us to do anything and everything in a world where anything and everything is possible.

And you thought your excitement for the film couldn’t possibly reach new levels! With just two months to go for the release, the expectations are soaring through the skies. However, thanks to everything we have learned and seen so far, it looks like Deadpool 3 will have no trouble exceeding the expectations.

Deadpool & Wolverine releases in theatres on July 26, 2024.