In the Ryan Reynolds-Blake Lively box office showdown, both husband and wife came out winners. Reynolds' Marvel Studios smash Deadpool & Wolverine remained the top movie in North American theaters for the third straight week with $54.2 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. Worldwide, it's now surpassed $1 billion, the AP reports. Deadpool & Wolverine, though, was closely followed by It Ends With Us, the romance drama starring Lively, which surpassed expectations with a stellar $50 million debut.
The films created a kind of family edition of "Barbenheimer," in which a pair of very different movies thrived in part due to counterprogramming. Only this time, the opposite movies were fronted by one of Hollywood's most famous couples. The films' one-two punch wasn't unprecedented. In 1990, Bruce Willis' Die Hard 2 led the box office while Demi Moore's Ghost came in second. Deadpool & Wolverine, which co-stars Hugh Jackman, is already one of the most lucrative Marvel releases. Lively, who makes a cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine, stars in and produced It Ends With Us. Adapted from the bestselling romance novel by Colleen Hoover, Lively plays Lily Bloom, a Boston florist torn between two men, one from her present life (Justin Baldoni, who also directed the film) and another who was her first love (Brandon Sklenar).
Below are estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
- Deadpool & Wolverine, $54.2 million.
- It Ends With Us, $50 million.
- Twisters, $15 million.
- Borderlands, $8.8 million.
- Despicable Me 4, $8 million.
- Trap, $6.7 million.
- Inside Out 2, $5 million.
- Harold and the Purple Crayon, $3.1 million.
- Cuckoo, $3 million.
- Longlegs, $2 million.
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