Deadpool (2016)

Well it was a good run but it looks like this film will finish about 9.5mil short of Passion of the Christ, and end up being the #2 Rated R Domestic Box office. It surpassed Matrix Reloaded for the #1 Rated R world wide a while back.

Interesting side note, although Batman V Superman beat this film's opening weekend by 30mil, it has tracked significantly worse than deadpool did and this weekend it's finally dipped below deadpool's run for the same time period. ie 24-day totals:
Deadpool:$311,484,061 / 24
BvS:$311,311,730 / 24

Unless there's some change i'd expect BvS to end up around 340-350mil domestic by the end of it's run.

It really goes to show the power of word of mouth vs marketing dollars. While fox did, at the last minute, throw about 50mil worth of marketing (the bulk of which TV spots and a Superbowl ad) towards Deadpool, the bulk of their advertising was Ryan Reynolds' Twitter account and youtube channel, followed by glowing word of mouth. While on the other hand WB dropped 150mil on marketing for a film that was critically panned out the gates and a mixed reception from fans.

lololol

Reynolds mentioned wanting to shoot something specifically for the DVD/BR and there was concern about money since home video has a different budget than theatrical. I'm guessing that spot was it and i'm guessing the dumptrucks of money in profits drove fox to greenlight him doing whatever he wants to promote this thing.

j00t_sl said:

it's great now, but it sets up a dangerous precedent for either giving actors too much say or not paying them when they should. i know ryan reynolds did a lot of those spots for free. they just sat in a studio when everyone was gone and filmed deadpool advertising. almost as a joke, but almost as a "hey guys, don't worry about advertisement, we got. just air these."

that works with the right team. that works when it's a loveletter like deadpool is. it doesn't work when it's not an organic process.

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Well the next time a studio sits on a franchise for 11 years while a writing team and star beg them incessantly for a green light only to finally be thrown a bone and then wash their hands of the project and let them go out and succeed or fail on their own, then we can start talking about setting precedence.

The only movies I can think of that even remotely relate are Mad Max Fury Road (a Masterpiece) that george miller fought to make for eternity, and Ant Man that was originally a 10 year passion piece by Edgar Wright, who eventually left the franchise due to pressure to incorporate it into the MCU (he had started Ant Man before there was even an MCU to tie it in to)

You know what the new director changed, to meet Marvel's demands? The falcon scene, and yellow jacket (a marvel character) as the bad guy. The rest was all Wright's original story, including the final battlethomas the train scene in the little girls bedroom. Paul Rudd along with Adam McKay added their brand of humor to the script as well as the original dialogue was more serious tone, heist film.

So we're basically 2 for 3 as far as setting precedence in allowing passion projects to go forward. If Wright had caved to Marvel's requests then we'd be pretty much at 3 out of 3. If Disney had caved and let Wright make Ant Man his way, we'd have a non-funny, serious Ant Man heist film with no MCU tie in.