As a general rule, Hollywood studios tend to avoid the dreaded R rating with their big tentpole movies, because it restricts which audiences can see it. If a movie is rated PG-13, 13-year-olds and their elders can enjoy it. But if it’s rated R, every ticket-holding viewer needs to be over 17 years old (or accompanied by a very cool parent or guardian), so the studios miss out on a large chunk of the moviegoing population, especially during the lucrative summer box office window. But that doesn’t mean R-rated movies can’t bust blocks. Some of the highest-grossing movies ever made have been rated R.
In 1973,the R-rated supernatural chillerThe Exorcistgrossed $329,017,945. In 1990, the raunchy romcomPretty Womanbroke its record with a gross of $463,406,268. A year later, the groundbreaking effects and explosive action sequences ofTerminator 2: Judgment Dayearned a whopping $520,884,847.T2held that record for over a decade before 2003’sThe Matrix Reloadedbroke it with a $741,847,937 gross.The Matrixsequel retained this record for slightly longer thanT2before being topped byDeadpool’s gross of $782,612,155 in 2016. Two years later,Deadpool 2broke its own franchise’s record by about $4 million with a global box office haul of $786,470,484.
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After the Merc with a Mouth broke his own box office record, it seemed like Deadpool had become the king of R-rated box office returns, and that the history of highest-grossing R-rated movies would just become a series ofDeadpoolmovies topping each other’s worldwide figures every couple of years. And then, in 2019, Todd Phillips’Jokercame along and blew bothDeadpoolmovies out of the box office water with an unprecedented $1 billion gross. TheJoaquin Phoenix-starring psychological thrillerended up raking in $1,074,251,311. The upcomingDeadpool 3will need more than a $4 million head-start to reclaim its title.
Deadpool In The MCU
Following Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox,Deadpool 3will be set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Although it’ll be distributed under the family-friendly Mouse House banner, the studio executives don’t want to mess with a good thing and have confirmed that the newDeadpoolmovie will keep the series’ traditional R rating. Shawn Levy, who previously directed Ryan Reynolds inFree GuyandThe Adam Project, has been tapped to helm theDeadpoolthreequel.Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the writers of the first two movies, are working on the script. The firstDeadpoolsequel barely outgrossed its own predecessor, so on paper, it seems unlikely thatDeadpool 3can breakJoker’s billion-dollar record. But the extra years of anticipation waiting forDeadpool 3paired with the promise of MCU crossovers could put the Merc with a Mouth back on top of the R-rated blockbuster mountain.
The MCU’s bigAvengersteam-ups easily break $1 billion at the global box office and often make it to $2 billion. But the solo movies usually struggle a little more, as they warrant fewer rewatches and some Marvel fans skip them altogether. Still, it’s not unprecedented for an MCU solo movie to crack $1 billion.Iron Man 3,Black Panther,Captain Marvel, and the last twoSpider-Manmovies all raced past the billion-dollar mark (as didCaptain America: Civil War, but that Avenger-infested epic was a solo movie in name only). All of those movies were rated PG-13, butDeadpool 3could repeat their successwith an R rating.
Reynolds’ star has only continued to rise in the years since the double whammy ofDeadpoolandDeadpool 2launched him into the Hollywood stratosphere. Self-aware roles in movies likeFree Guyand6 Undergroundhave only made fans miss Deadpool more. From whistling theIndiana Jonestheme in an ancient temple to telling Dwayne Johnson to “look for the box that says ‘MacGuffin’ on it,”the lazy, on-the-nose meta riffs in Netflix’sRed Noticeonly served to highlight how much smarter theDeadpoolmovies are, and how much more they do with Reynolds’ comic talents.
Marvel Is Wisely Making Fans Wait
Along with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, and a variant of Tony Stark played by Tom Cruise, Deadpool was one of the many extra-versal superheroes expected to make a cameo appearance inDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. TheDoctor Strangesequel featuredan all-you-can-eat buffet of superhero cameos, but ‘Pool never made an appearance. Marvel is wisely making audiences wait forDeadpool 3to see Wade Wilson back in action. Hopefully, it’ll be worth the wait. If it is, it could leaveJokerin its dust at the box office.
The tug-o’-war between the Merc with a Mouth and the Clown Prince of Crime could go on indefinitely. Even ifDeadpool 3topsJoker’s box office returns, it might get overtaken shortly thereafter byJoker’s own upcoming sequel,Folie à Deux. TheJokerfollow-up, recently confirmed by Phillips in a social media post, is reportedly a musical starring Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn. Bradley Cooper’sA Star is Bornremake is an R-rated musical starring Lady Gaga and it grossed $436.2 million. Imagine how much more money it would’ve made if the Joker was involved.
