‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Overtakes ‘Joker’ as Highest-Grossing R-Rated Film in History With $1.08 Billion Globally

Deadpool deserves his nickname Marvel Jesus.

After 23 days in theaters, Disney's comic sequel Deadpool & Wolverine has made $1. 086 billion, surpassing 2019's Joker ($1. 078 billion) as the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time.

The Marvel Universe adventure debuted in theaters on July 26 and brought in $211 million, making it the sixth-highest opening weekend of all time. Since then, Deadpool & Wolverine has not lost its presence, grossing $516 million in North America and $568 million worldwide. It surpassed the theatrical grosses of its predecessors, 2016's Deadpool ($783 million) and 2018's Deadpool 2 ($786 million), both in just two weeks of release. It is the second best-selling film of 2024 (behind Disney Pixar's Inside Out 2 ($1. 558 billion) and the second R-rated movie to join the hallowed billionaire's club.

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"Thank you for making Marvel Studios' first R-rated movie the biggest movie of all time," Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said in a statement. "Thank you for making Marvel Studios' first R-rated movie the best it could be. It was worth having this conversation!

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The studio head was casually referring to a line in the film where Deadpool jokes that the only thing Feige was banned from was cocaine. In fact, Feige claims he never issued such an order.

"It wasn't like we were closed off to everything," Feige told Variety in July. "Sometimes after the 28th joke you just don't laugh enough. I guess I'm a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to drug use, but I said, 'Uh, I'm not laughing that much.'" Ryan obviously stores everything in his brain so he can use it as a funny joke later. And he puts it in the script."

Starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman as their alter-ego antiheroes, Deadpool and Wolverine stand out for bringing previously 20th Century Fox-owned comic book characters into Disney's Marvel cinematic universe. This is the MCU's first R-rated film.

"The fact that it's rated R doesn't make it an R movie," Reynolds told Variety ahead of the film's release. "It has a lot to do with the character. The character is pretty clumsy. His brain is like a half-eaten omelette coming out of a 7-year-old's skull."

Ticket sales were brisk as Reynolds and director Shawn Levy brought Jackman's mutant Logan out of retirement and brought together a cast of Fox heroes, including Jennifer Garner as Elektra, Chris Evans as the Fantastic Four's Human Torch and Wesley Snipes as Blade, to save the timeline with Deadpool and Wolverine. Dedicated fans, for one, decided to watch the film early and multiple times to avoid plot twists, key episodes and other spoilers.