In the Ryan Reynolds-Blake Lively box-office battle, both husband and wife were winners. According to studio estimates, Reynolds’ Marvel Studios hit Deadpool and Wolverine remained the top film in North American theaters for the third consecutive week, with ticket sales of $54.2 million. Worldwide, it has now crossed $1 billion. (Also Read: Ryan Reynolds embarrasses Blake Lively in surprise video, Hugh Jackman also appears and says ‘I can’t kiss her anymore’)
However, right after Deadpool and Wolverine came the romance drama It Ends With Us starring Lively, which exceeded expectations with a strong opening of $50 million.
Together, these films formed a kind of family version of Barbenheimer, in which a pair of very different films succeeded partly due to counterprogramming. Only this time, the contrasting films were fronted by one of Hollywood’s most famous couples. The one-two punch of films was not entirely unprecedented. In 1990, Bruce Willis’s Die Hard 2 took the lead at the box office, while Demi Moore’s Ghost came in second.
The weekend also featured an expensive flop. Borderlands, the long-delayed $120 million videogame adaptation directed by Eli Roth, launched with a mere $8.8 million for Lionsgate. Starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, and Jack Black, the film was shot in 2021. After delays and reshoots, it finally arrived in theaters effectively unreleased; it only has a 10% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and looks set to be one of the worst movies of the year.
Meanwhile, Hugh Jackman co-stars Deadpool and Wolverine continued their success, breaking box-office records. The film, directed by Shawn Levy, is the second R-rated film to reach $1 billion after 2019’s Joker. In three weeks, it’s already one of the most lucrative Marvel releases and trails only Disney’s other 2024 hit, Inside Out 2 ($1.6 billion worldwide), among films released this year.
Lively has made cameos in Deadpool and Wolverine, but she also starred in and produced It Ends With Us. Based on Colleen Hoover’s bestselling romance novel, the film stars Lively as Lily Bloom, a Boston florist torn between two men, one from her current life (Justin Baldoni, who also directed the film) and another who was her first love (Brandon Sklenar).
It Ends With Us cost a modest $25 million to produce, so it will turn a significant profit for co-financiers Columbia Pictures and Wayfarer Studios. Like Sony’s another female-focused summer-release book adaptation, Where the Crawdads Sing, It Ends With Us could hold up well to the typically slow August box-office period. Audiences gave it an A- CinemaScore.
Reynolds and Lively have occasionally shown their films converge. Earlier this week, Reynolds posted a video of himself asking Sklenar junket questions. The timing was particularly favorable for Lively, whose film doubled its opening weekend forecasts.
1. Deadpool and Wolverine, $54.2 million.
2. It Ends With Us, $50 million.
3. Twisters, $15 million.
4. Borderlands, $8.8 million.
5. Despicable Me 4, $8 million.
6. The Trap, $6.7 million.
7. Inside Out 2, $5 million.
8. Harold and the Purple Crayon, $3.1 million.
9. Cuckoo, $3 million.
10. Longlegs, $2 million.
