The Merc with a Mouth and Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Each icons in their own way, these two characters are both excellent at murder and absolutely kill it at the box office despite their R ratings. Last year, Stephen King's IT floated to great heights at the box office, breaking records and landing on the horror and R-rated all-time lists with its $700.3 million worldwide haul. But Pennywise couldn't hold onto all of its spots for long, as now Deadpool 2 has surpassed IT to become the third-highest grossing R-rated film of all time.
Deadpool 2, which is still in the top 5 at the domestic box office over a month since its release, crossed $700 million over the weekend, according to Deadline, bringing its worldwide total to a whopping $705 million. That is good enough to shoot out Pennywise's Deadlights and pass IT to become the #3 R-rated movie of all time. Still ahead of Deadpool 2 on the worldwide R-rated charts are The Matrix Reloaded at #2 with $742.1 million and the first Deadpool at #1 with $783.1 million. It seems unlikely that Deadpool 2 will have quite enough juice left at the box office to overtake either of those movies, but Wade Wilson owning two out of the top three spots on the all-time list is pretty good and basically makes Deadpool the most successful R-rated franchise ever.
Deadpool 2 has performed well both domestically and abroad with its current box office split being $304.1 million domestic and $400.9 million from foreign receipts. The Ryan Reynolds-starring sequel also nabbed Fox International's biggest opening of all time with $176.3 million, surpassing the studio's PG-13 mutant film, X-Men: Days of Future Past. In addition to ripping on Wolverine in the movie itself, Deadpool 2 also defeated Logan at the box office to become the highest-grossing international debut for an R-rated film. All of this is made more impressive by virtue of the fact that Deadpool 2 and its predecessor did not open in the increasingly large and important Chinese market due to censorship laws. So even without China, Deadpool 2 still managed to break records. It should also be noted that IT wasn't released in China either.
Although he has been knocked down a peg for now, Pennywise will have another chance to go for Deadpool's box office crown when IT: Chapter 2 hits theaters. The sequel will complete the big screen adaptation of Stephen King's tome and will again be directed by Andres Muschietti. Production has already begun with an all-star cast, as IT: Chapter 2 is set for release on September 6, 2019.
Check out our release schedule for all of the horror villains, superheroes and everything in between hitting theaters in 2018, and for all the latest on clowns wearing ridiculous costumes, and Pennywise too, stay tuned to CinemaBlend.
