Ryan Reynolds is cheering on his wife, Blake Lively, despite their box office face-off. Reynolds stars in Shawn Levy’s anticipated Deadpool & Wolverine, while Lively leads the romantic drama It Ends With Us. Reynolds recently sat down with host Willie Geist for Sunday Today to discuss his father’s Parkinson’s diagnosis and the Deadpool sequel when Geist asked the IF actor about the ongoing box-office rivalry:
“Despite your successful and happy marriage, you’re famously vicious professional rivals. So did you say to her, ‘I beat you by that much at the box office?'”
Reynolds responded:
“The only time in my life I’ve ever dreamt of coming in second. No, I think that’s the sign of a good relationship. It’s always been the one kind of constant with Blake and I: We really root for each other.”
Deadpool & Wolverine premiered on July 26 and has grossed over $1.1 billion worldwide. The sequel to Deadpool and Deadpool 2 stars Reynolds and Hugh Jackman. The film follows beloved Marvel antihero Deadpool, as the Time Variance Authority offers him a place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but he instead recruits a variant of Wolverine to save his universe from extinction. Lively’s It Ends With Us, based on Colleen Hoover’s novel of the same name, premiered on August 9 and has proven a worthy opponent for Reynold’s latest outing. Deadpool & Wolverine topped the August 9 weekend charts with $53 million, and It Ends With Us came in second with an impressive $50 million. Things shifted that Monday, and It Ends With Us began to dominate the top spot.
Deadpool & Wolverine has received a mostly positive reception, and its box office numbers indicate overwhelming fan support. Discussing the film’s reception, Reynolds told Geist:
“Last week I walked around New York City with Hugh, and it was wild — it felt like we maybe saved a baby from a burning building or something. People really, really found a lot of love and joy and happiness in the movie. And that’s the thing I’m most proud of.”
Blake Lively on Professional Collaborations with Husband Ryan Reynolds
In It Ends With Us, Lively stars opposite Justin Baldoni (who also directs) and Brandon Sklenar. The romantic drama, based on Hoover’s parents, follows the story of Lily Bloom (Lively), a woman who overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life in Boston and chase a lifelong dream of opening her own business. She meets and falls in love with a neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, but their relationship has significant issues that lead Lily to call on her own strength. During a recent conversation with E! News, Lively spoke about how she and Reynolds celebrate each other’s wins:
“We help each other. He works on everything I do, I work on everything he does. His wins, his celebrations are mine and mine are his.”
While It Ends With Us isn’t precisely impressing critics (the film boasts a 56% on Rotten Tomatoes), audiences are embracing the movie, keeping an eye on Lively’s floral-themed press looks, and digging into the behind-the-scenes drama surrounding the flick. Reynolds and Lively have been married since 2012 and share four children. Their box office domination comes 30 years after a couple earned the top box office spots. In 1990, then-married duo Bruce Willis and Demi Moore led the charts with Die Hard (at the number one spot) and Ghost.
Deadpool & Wolverine
and
It Ends with Us
are in theaters now.
