Deadpool & Wolverine is the highest-grossing R-rated movie in history*
*If you don’t account for inflation
Deadpool & Wolverine, the super meta Marvel movie starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, has eclipsed 2019’s Joker to become the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever, having taken $1.14 billion worldwide.
Technically, however, when you adjust for inflation, Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ is still the top-grossing R-rated movie in domestic box office history… for now.
A Marvel match made in marketing
Indeed, Marvel’s first R-rated movie has climbed the charts in just 4 weekends and became only the second release to cross the $1 billion threshold in 2024, on the heels of another Disney follow-up (Inside Out 2).
The financial success of the 34th installment in the MCU suggests that Ryan Reynolds’ theory about the movie — that it’s the first R-rated film to fit the “four-quadrant” model, where a movie appeals to males and females, as well as those above and below 25 — is on the money, with Marvel’s president Kevin Feige calling it the “most wholesome R-rated film that anybody can ever see”.
The Deadpool threequel is helping to spark a resurgence for the age rating, which requires under-17s to be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Thanks mostly to the Marvel flick, a new Bad Boys movie, and a handful of horrors, R-rated movies have accounted for just shy of 30% of domestic box office takings so far this year — the highest market share (pandemic era aside) since the turn of the century.
