Mike Castiglione
Well, I certainly didn’t see this one coming. Then again, neither did Hollywood, considering Deadpool more than doubled its projected sales output in its first weekend.
What’s more ironic, that a film that took 11 years to be green lighted wound up shattering box-office records and raking in $135 million its opening weekend or that the star of 2011’s epic flop, Green Lantern, is the same guy behind the mask in Deadpool? The film’s opening wound up grossing more than any other R-rated film, and it was the biggest opening weekend in 20th Century Fox’s history. Or maybe it’s not so ironic, after all.
This is Hollywood we are talking about. It would seem such a simple premise to give audiences what they crave which, in this case, was an R-rated comic book movie that stays true to the source material while being witty and self-deprecating. But does anyone really doubt that studios are busy at this very moment looking to double down on the formula that made this film such a wild success?
Get ready for the market to be flooded with watered down versions of comic book flicks and sequels upon sequels of potty-mouth superheroes. Fox is already working on a sequel, and one can only hope it doesn’t jump the shark.
Here is what Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn had to say about the phenomenon in a Facebook post:
(Deadpool) is hilariously funny, has lots of heart, and is exactly what we need right now… Deadpool was its own thing. THAT’S what people are reacting to. It’s original, it’s damn good, it was made with love by the filmmakers, and it wasn’t afraid to take risks.
The masses would agree, considering the film’s 95-percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Indeed, it’s oversimplifying things to say that PG-13 fatigue with comic book movies is solely responsible for the success of Deadpool. Tireless campaigning from star Ryan Reynolds and the timing of a Valentine’s Day weekend release certainly helped things, but at the end of the day, it just serves as a reminder that there is no one-size-fits-all recipe for movie success. That, or amidst the market’s oversaturation of superhero films, the one that won our hearts was the “Merc with a mouth” and a noble cause, played by an actor known largely for not being a movie star.