The summer blockbuster season is now looming, and all eyes are on a variety of comic book movies and franchise films to duke it out for box office supremacy. One such film is Deadpool 2, which is aiming to continue the mutant adventures of Ryan Reynolds' smartass anti-hero. Early box office tracking numbers have started to roll in, and while things are looking pretty good for David Leitch's sequel, it looks like the film's opening weekend could fall short of its predecessor's opening.
According to the box office numbers, Deadpool 2 is tracking for a $100 million opening weekend when it debuts on May 18. Though arguably an impressive benchmark by most conventional metrics, this is lower than the $132 million opening weekend experienced by Tim Miller's original film. Deadpool 2 is expected to be the highest-performing debut that weekend, with Open Road's Show Dogs and Paramount's Book Club also debuting.
A few limiting factors seem to stand in the way of Deadpool 2 living up to the immense financial success of its predecessor. One major element worth noting is the fact that Deadpool 2 is nestled firmly between the releases of Avengers: Infinity War and Solo: A Star Wars Story, as all three will debut within a one-month period. Lumping several potential blockbusters into such a short release window could force them to cannibalize each other, possibly hindering overall box office performance, which wasn't an issue when the first Deadpool premiered mostly unopposed in February 2016.
Another factor that could limit Deadpool 2's opening weekend is the fact that the franchise built around the foul-mouthed X-Men character is now a known quantity. Deadpool came out of nowhere and became a sensation, but Deadpool 2 now has the inherent challenge of matching or exceeding expectations.
With all of that said, a $100 million opening weekend is nothing to scoff at, and the report from BoxOffice Pro laying out Deadpool 2's tracking arguably seems optimistic. Even without matching the opening weekend of the original Deadpool, this sequel could go on to become a massive success by offering up something edgier than the comic book genre typically gives audiences.
As far as the overarching X-Men franchise goes, Deadpool 2 has become much more critical this week. The original plan was for 20th Century Fox to release three different mutant films in 2018, starting with New Mutants, then leading into Deadpool 2, and rounding things out with X-Men: Dark Phoenix. However, with the recent delay of New Mutants and Dark Phoenix, Deadpool 2 is now the only X-Men film that will hit theaters this year.
We will see how Deadpool 2 performs when it hits theaters later this year on May 18. Let us know what you think of the film's tracking, as well as what you're most excited to see when it debuts, in the comments!
