20th Century Fox
"Deadpool 2."
- "Deadpool 2" earned $18.6 million on Thursday night to break the record for highest-grossing Thursday night preview ever for an R-rated movie.
- But that may not be the only record it breaks this weekend.
It looks like it's going to be a good weekend for 20th Century Fox.
The studio behind "Deadpool 2" is already counting stacks of cash as the sequel to its hit R-rated 2016 Marvel movie starring Ryan Reynolds took in $18.6 million at Thursday preview screenings, according to Variety.
That beats the $13.5 million earned by Warner Bros.' "It" last year to become the highest-grossing ever for Thursday preview screenings of an R-rated movie.
Fox is certainly gunning to break more records before the weekend is over. Releasing "Deadpool 2" on 4,349 screens, the studio has its movie on 246 more screens than "It" had last year, which is the current holder of the biggest opening day ever for an R-rated movie ($50.4 million). And it's 791 more than the original "Deadpool" movie, which went on to take the record for biggest opening weekend ever for an R ($132.4 million). Granted, the original's box-office performance shocked the industry.
But there's no fooling anyone this time.
With a an 85% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Reynolds and director David Leitch ("Atomic Blonde") were tasked with making "Deadpool 2" as outlandish as the original and it seems they've done just that.