‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Unseats 'Passion of the Christ' in Box Office Milestone

Deadpool & Wolverine has become the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time in North America, according to The Numbers and Box Office Mojo. It’s primed to become the top-grossing R-rated movie ever made globally in the coming weeks.

When it opened last weekend, Shawn Levy’s extended ode to Marvel’s Fox era notched the largest opening weekend for an R-rated movie in history. It was the sixth-highest opening weekend of all time in North America, besting movies like The Avengers and Black Panther.

Now, after about a week and a half on release, the movie has surpassed The Passion of the Christ as the highest-grossing R-rated movie in North America. Deadpool & Wolverine has grossed $395.5 million to date, overtaking The Passion’s $370 million cume. It’s a bittersweet milestone for the raunchy action franchise, whose first installment came perilously close to unseating Mel Gibson’s gory religious epic with a $363 million North American gross.

A joke early on in Deadpool 2 even makes light of the faux rivalry. Ryan Reynolds, as the title character, tells the audience in a direct address that he’s “now talked about in the same sentence as Jesus.”

“Passion of the Christ, then me. At least domestically,” he concedes. “We beat them overseas, where there’s no such thing as religion.” The Passion grossed $241 million overseas for a worldwide total of $612 million.

In international territories, Deadpool & Wolverine has well surpassed Gibson’s film and is on track to become the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time. It currently sits at third on the list, with $824 million in worldwide grosses, behind Oppenheimer ($977 million) and Joker ($1.07 billion). Deadpool & Wolverine needs to gross only $254 million more to take the top spot. Since it’s still going strong on just about every screen at every cinema, the movie seems certain to blow past that marker within the next four weeks.

It’s unlikely that Deadpool & Wolverine will steal the spot of top-grossing movie of all time, though it has a fair chance of breaking into the top 10. James Cameron’s original Avatar is still the highest-grossing movie ever made, with $2.92 billion worldwide. Avengers: Endgame follows with $2.79 billion. However, it seems all but assured that Deadpool & Wolverine will replace some of the titles further down the list, such as Jurassic World ($1.67 billion) at number eight; or this summer’s Inside Out 2 ($1.55 billion), which recently stole the number 10 position.