On its sixth Friday in theaters, “Deadpool 2” joined its predecessor in an elite box office club as it became only the fifth film to gross $300 million at the domestic box office while holding an R rating.
Along with the two “Deadpool” films, the other movies in this group are “The Passion of the Christ,” “American Sniper” and last year’s remake of “It.”
While “Deadpool 2” won’t pass the domestic total of the first “Deadpool” $363 million, it has proven to be a major moneymaker in a crowded summer market, beating out “Solo: A Star Wars Story” on the domestic charts by $100 million. The film will also pass “It” on the global box office chats this weekend with over $700 million worldwide.
Since Deadpool first hit the big screen two years ago, he has steadily won over older moviegoers along with the teenage and millennial crowd that made his first movie an instant hit. According to data from movie analytics site Movio, the opening weekend crowd for “Deadpool” was 70 percent between the ages of 14-30, with 66 percent of the audience from its first 17 days being from that age group.
But on the opening weekend for “Deadpool 2,” the audience share for the 14-30 demographic dropped to 51 percent, while the percentage for ages 50 and up nearly doubled. In addition, half the audience for the film’s first 17 days have been over the age of 50.
It seems that Wade Wilson has found a devoted following with the AARP crowd.