Apparently, there is a correlation between giant statues and box office success. Also, just because a movie has been released on Blu-Ray in most of the rest of the world, that doesn’t have a detrimental impact on its box office success when the movie is finally released in one country. These are the newest lessons we’ve been taught by Deadpool. The super-anti-hero movie has finally seen its Japanese box office release and if there was any fear that piracy or other factors might have impacted the delayed start, those fears have now been relieved. Deadpool just saw the biggest opening weekend for an X-Men universe movie in the history of the nation.
Last March, it was Disney’s Zootopia that ended the reign of Deadpool at the top of the US box office. Now, in a time-delayed role reversal, in Japan Deadpool has returned the favor to Zootopia. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the merc with a mouth has posted $6.5 million in ticket sales over the past five days on 750 screen, which is better than any previous X-Men film. It's a more than solid number for a movie opening in Japan and while it won’t have any major impact on global box office totals, Deadpool has grossed over $770 million worldwide, it’s just another feather in the cap of the R-rated superhero movie that seems to be able to do anything at this point.
Seeing Deadpool release a full four months after it was released everywhere else in the world, except China, who banned it outright, it would not have been surprising to see to see movie piracy take its toll on the film. The longer a movie is out, the easier it is to find online, and so many of the most ardent fans might have gone that route rather than wait nearly half a year to see it in theaters. Whether or not piracy was an issue, it doesn’t appear to have had a significantly negative impact on the box office. Seeing the movie do well would still have been expected, but success this strong shows the interest in the film was still incredibly high despite the delay in release.
It’s also possible that the giant Deadpool statue scared people into running for movie theaters in order to find safety.
Whatever the reason, we can add one more country to the list that Deadpool has taken over, and another that’s certainly looking forward to the upcoming sequel.
