‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Beats ‘Joker’ As Top R-Rated Movie Of All Time [Updated] (2024)

Deadpool & Wolverine scores the knockout today, taking the title of biggest R-rated movie in global cinema history away from previous champion Joker. Marvel’s sequel topped $1.3 billion last weekend, and expects to pass the DC villain’s gross Thursday.

The Ryan Reynolds-Hugh Jackman superhero tag-team effort that brought down Joaquin Phoenix’s Clown Prince of Crime is still doing big business and will set the bar even higher for the rematch this October, when Joker: Folie à Deux evens up the odds by introducing Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn to the fight.

The Scorecard

If by some slim chance the final international weekday actuals come in and Deadpool & Wolverine wound up technically a few bucks shy of $1.079 billion within traditional accounting (which would likely only be due to Alien: Romulus early screenings Wednesday and Thursday taking a bigger than expected bite), keep in mind that the additional revenue from the morning screenings in East Asian markets (which start before midnight Thursday/Friday Hawaii time, aka what we think of as “close of business Thursday”) should be enough to make up the difference, in terms of a precise moment Deadpool & Wolverine tops R-rated charts.

But I don’t expect it will be necessary to use any technicalities, as Deadpool & Wolverine should squeak past Joker in the tight race. And with a rematch later this year, after the dust settles for the R-rated chart Deadpool and Joker franchises could wind up owning five of the top six spots on the worldwide all-time R-rated list.

[Update: Deadpool & Wolverine finished Thursday with $1.086 billion, plenty enough to pass Joker and secure the victory.]

Notice, this means there will presumably (after Joker: Folie à Deux) be six superhero films in the R-rated top 10 (again, read all about that here). That’s a better showing for superheroes than on the regular all-time box office lists, where only three superhero films are among the top 10 grossers — Avengers: Endgame with $2.79 billion, Avengers: Infinity War at $2 billion, and Spider-Man: No Way Home hitting $1.9 billion. Indeed, it takes a full top 20 to get as many total superhero films (six) on the global all-time box office list as are in the R-rated all-time worldwide top 10.

The Setup

Joker shattered all expectations in 2019 with a massive $247 million opening weekend. That’s a 4.3x final multiplier, at $1.0789 billion final global cume.

That sort of positive word of mouth and critical acclaim is box office gold — and award season gold, as Joker lead actor Phoenix won the Oscar for Best Actor and Hildur Guðnadóttir took home the Academy Award for Best Original Score.

Joker was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing.

The sequel, then, carries a lot of built-in expectations and pressure to live up to its predecessor, but it also has equally powerful momentum and weight behind it. It could surely have one of 2024’s biggest opening weekends, and if it lives up to the hype then we can expect another run at $1 billion.

The Rematch

But how far past $1 billion Joker: Folie à Deux can get will depend a lot on how much the competition takes a bite out of target audiences. While Saturday Night should appeal to a lot of adult audiences and has a strong nostalgia and recognition factor, the real challengers are Venom: The Last Dance and Smile 2.

Both films will not just take up a lot of screen space, but they also carry heavy appeal to some of the Joker’s audience — which drove the film’s box office success. Any notable falloff in repeat viewings, or second-choice status due to those viewers choosing the final Venom chapter or the second entry in the Smile franchise, might slow Joker: Folie à Deux down enough in the back half of October to cost it some momentum.

Momentum is more crucial than ever in the modern box office era, and lost momentum can add up — especially when with Wicked, Gladiator II, and Moana 2 arriving in November. That’s another crop of new films taking up screens and drawing a lot of core audience from Joker: Folie à Deux.

Again, momentum matters, and this is a lot of big projects with high expectations crowding the marketplace when the Joker sequel needs momentum and legs if it hopes to make a run at topping its predecessor and taking back the R-rated crown from Deadpool & Wolverine.

And remember, the weight class for that crown will be significantly higher by the time Joker: Folie à Deux shows up for the fight.

Deadpool & Wolverine still has weeks of strong box office ahead of it, likely to carry it toward $1.2 billion and however higher — with some luck, perhaps it makes a run at $1.3 billion. Which means Joker: Folie à Deux won’t just waltz to an easy victory, even if it manages to substantially overperform the first Joker film.

Rematch Redux?

Should Joker: Folie à Deux win back the top position on the all-time R-rated list, then it will be some time before we get another rematch to break any potential tie. Deadpool likely won’t have another solo film until at least after Avengers: Secret Wars in 2027, in which both Reynolds’ Deadpool and Jackman’s Wolverine appear.

But if Deadpool wins again, then there’s no guarantee the Joker will get a rematch again, once the new DCU takes flight with writer-director James Gunn’s DC Studios co-CEO 2025’s Superman. While it’s true that Matt Reeves’ The Batman series will stay alive post-2025, Todd Phillips’ separate standalone Joker franchise hasn’t gotten any such guarantee — at least, not publicly.

ForbesRobert Downey Jr, Russo Bros Return In ‘Avengers: Doomsday,’ ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’By Mark Hughes

That said, assuming Joker: Folie à Deux is a big hit — even a comedown to the $800-900 million range would still be a huge success — it’s hard to imagine WBD/DC Studios not giving Phillips a trilogy if he has a good plan for a third chapter.

There’s likewise no guarantee Deadpool gets another sequel after the MCU completes whatever soft reset is coming with Avengers: Secret Wars, although as with Joker, it’s hard to believe Marvel would forgo a sequel to a billion dollar blockbuster.

So my guess is, Joker: Folie à Deux will indeed be a billion-plus grosser and challenge for the title, and regardless of the outcome sometime by late-2027 or 2028, we’ll get another rematch — and the all-time R-rated chart will get two more champions.