Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe has become the first film franchise in history to cross $30 billion at the global box office. The achievement was announced during the studios’ Hall H presentation at San Diego Comic-Con, led by studio chief Kevin Feige.
“Deadpool & Wolverine,” the latest entry in the sprawling series, pushed the haul across the coveted milestone after scoring $96 million on opening day in North America — the biggest ever for an R-rated release and the sixth-highest of all time. It’s poised to generate $195 million to $205 million domestically and roughly $380 million to $400 million globally through Sunday.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is one of the most prolific film franchises of all time with 34 installments over 15 years. The comic book giant has delivered an unprecedented string of blockbusters since its inception with 2008’s “Iron Man,” including “Avengers: Endgame” ($2.799 billion) and “Infinity War” ($2.05 billion), standing as two of the highest-grossing movies ever. Even recent misses like “Eternals” ($402 million), “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” ($476 million) and “The Marvels” ($206 million) would rank as victories for any other studio. However, those films cost $200 million or more so they lost money for Disney in their theatrical runs.
Other top-earning franchises include the Sony-produced “Spider-Man” with $10.6 billion across 10 films; “Star Wars” with $10.3 billion across 11 films; “Harry Potter” with $9.6 billion across 11 films; and “James Bond” with $7.8 billion across 25 films. So, all those franchises have a lot of legwork to do if they’re going to catch up with Marvel’s costumed heroes.
Shawn Levy directed “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which unites Ryan Reynolds‘ snarky mercenary and Hugh Jackman‘s gruff mutant on a mission to save the Merc With a Mouth’s home universe. Emma Corrin as Cassandra Nova, Matthew MacFadyen as Mr. Paradox, Rob Delaney as Peter and Leslie Uggams as Blind Al round out the cast.