I’ve just put together how ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine pushed the DC movie with the franchise’s current biggest box office out of holding a major milestone when it comes to the superhero genre. While ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool only became a part of the MCU a year ago, ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine has proved a major release for the franchise in more than one way.
Though welcoming Wolverine and ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool into the MCU timeline, expanding on the multiverse, and introducing one of the franchise’s most powerful villains into the fray proved ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine was a big deal, its box office success cemented it as a superhero movie staple. This is doubly true looking at what the 2024 movie’s success meant for other films consequently.
ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine’s Box Office Results Were A Major Deal For The MCU
ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine marked a major success for the MCU, with the film being the first in three years to break the $1 billion box office mark for the franchise. All in all, the 2024 MCU movie was able to make $1.3 billion (as per The Numbers and Box Office Mojo), which is a major movie feat.
It’s also one that makes a lot of sense, since ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine was able to combine the nostalgia for Fox’s X-Men movies and the appeal of seeing several major actors return with an action-packed story that shows the real potential of the multiverse concept. However, this didn’t guarantee ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine success.
It’s worth noting that ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine appeared to be a final send-off to the Fox X-Men universe also definitely helped its fiscal results. This didn’t quite end up being the case in the way some may have anticipated, since the universe lives on as part of the MCU multiverse, but it still looks to have played its own role.
With ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine making almost as much as one of the MCU’s flagship Avengers movies – since Avengers: Age Of Ultron also made $1.3 billion, and only grossed slightly more with its box office – it’s no surprise it changed the 2024 film changed the superhero movie landscape. That said, it is surprising it changed things for DC.
ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine’s Box Office Pushed DC Out Of The Top 10 Live-Action Superhero Movie Box Office Results
ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine‘s $1.3 billion box office places it among the most successful superhero movies of all time in this regard. Specifically, ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine now has the sixth-highest worldwide box office of all live-action superhero movies (The Numbers), which is a pretty huge deal by itself.
However, it’s also interesting since this placement adjusts things in other ways. Most notably, this result takes Aquaman‘s own $1.1 billion box office result down to the 11th spot in the box office rankings of live-action superhero movie, taking it out of the top ten.
Given Aquaman is the DC movie with the overall highest worldwide box office, this effectively means ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine knocked DC out of this list. This further underlines the level of success the 2024 film has garnered, and the prior success of Aquaman, since it still retained this placement for several years.
Aquaman was released in December 2018, with ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine being released 6 years later via its debut in July 2024.
It is worth noting that this was made possible by 2021’s prior results with Spider-Man: No Way Home – which itself has the third-highest box office in current superhero movie history. As such, ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine supplanting Aquaman in this way was arguably something that was several years in the making, albeit unintentionally.
The Top 10 Live-Action Superhero Movie Box Offices Paint An Interesting Picture For The Genre
With Aquaman now absent from the list of the ten superhero movies with the highest box offices, the roster is now entirely composed of MCU movies. This speaks to the franchise’s considerable success, especially when looking at a specific window of time.
Currently, this ten is also made up of MCU films that released between 2012-2024. This appears to speak to the franchise growing to new heights over the course of Phase 1, though it shows it’s still possible for MCU movies to hit these box office numbers now, though some more recent additions have had far lower results.
Similarly, it’s interesting to note that this roster is entirely made up of Avengers movies, superhero movie debuts, and the third movies in some MCU trilogies, speaking to the types of films that tend to be must-see viewing for audiences in cinemas. Indeed, the fact The Avengers is still in the fourth spot after over a decade speaks volumes to its significance for the genre.
With the DC Universe on the horizon – and plenty of major DC movies set to emerge as part of it – hopefully DC will be able to challenge these current box office rankings once more, and continue to prove the cinematic potential of the superhero genre. Until then, though, ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine has further cemented the MCU’s place in the genre.
