In a matter of only five years, Ryan Reynolds went from running away from the pitchforks of DC fans appalled by Green Lantern to receiving universal praise for embodying a Marvel fan-favorite in 2016’s Deadpool. Since then, Reynolds has become not only one of the most successful actors of the moment, but a producer and entrepreneur, who very much carves his own place in Hollywood. Ahead of th franchise's third installment, Reynolds is reflecting on the ‘life lessons’ the first movie taught him that sticks with him to this day.
The comedic actor recently shared what he learned from the 2016 movie that became a massive blockbuster. At the time, the odds were against the project, which was an R-rated superhero movie made on a relatively low-budget. In a cover story for the Wall Street Journal, he said:
Deadpool was a dispensary of so many invaluable life lessons. The first and foremost being: Necessity is the mother of invention. We had so little to make that movie and even less to market the movie. And the character was so unconventional, so marketing it had to step outside any semblance of normalcy.
“Necessity is the mother of invention” is a well-known proverb with roots in ancient Greek philosophy. Ryan Reynolds shared that he was able to really apply and understand it through his work on Deadpool. They only had so many resources to pull from, and it wasn’t a sky-is-the-limit kind of budget. Because of the circumstances, Reynolds and his creative team felt like they had to think outside the box and in turn it became more successful than they could have imagined.
When the movie came out, it was very uncommon for an R-rated superhero movie to find success. The movie was made on a budget of $58 million and made $782 million worldwide at the box office, making its returns massive. Its success paved the way for movies like Logan, Joker, Birds of Prey and The Suicide Squad. Of course, it also spawned the 2018 sequel Deadpool 2.
A big part of this success can be attributed to how the leading man and his team marketed that first movie. You may remember the rom-com billboard (pictured above) and another one that simply had a skull and poo emoji and “L.” There were a ton of clever marketing ideas that came out of the campaign, which was perfect for the fourth-wall breaking character. Since then, star has has founded his own marketing company, which has worked with companies including Match.com and his liquor company, Aviation Gin.
While we’re still waiting on Deadpool 3, Ryan Reynolds has a slew of other projects that have either been released or are in the works. His most recent hit was Free Guy, which even used Deadpool in its marketing as well. He also just shot a Christmas musical with Will Ferrell called Spirited and, obviously, he’s still “feuding” with Hugh Jackman. All in all, Reynolds is showing maximum effort as always!
