The husband-wife duo Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively displayed not only the power of their stardom this year, but also exercised their skills as producers, as well as their marketing acumen. Within a couple of weeks of each other, they delivered the biggest box office hits of their respective careers, and despite the difference in tone and audience appeal of their films — Deadpool & Wolverine and It Ends with Us — they somehow found a way to combine their powers and generate dual publicity for both titles.
The fruits of their labor are now apparent; having played in theaters for several weeks, Deadpool & Wolverine and It Ends with Us have now generated a total of $1.5 billion in combined global box office revenue. Of this $1.5 billion haul, $1.26 billion has been contributed by the superhero blockbuster, while nearly $300 million has come courtesy of the romantic drama. Incidentally, Lively played a cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine, and later revealed in a red carpet interview with E! News that Reynolds wrote a key scene in It Ends with Us.
The movie hasn’t been without controversy, with rumors suggesting that Lively didn’t get along with her director and co-star Justin Baldoni. It Ends with Us was originally slated for a release earlier this year, but was pushed until after Deadpool & Wolverine had sunk its teeth into the box office, allowing Lively to promote the movie on its heels. The film opened to mixed reviews, and currently sits at a “rotten” 57% approval rating on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. Its audience score, however, stands at a far more positive 91%.
It’s a Match Made In Heaven
Like It Ends with Us, Deadpool & Wolverine also has a stronger audience score on RT; 95%, as compared to its critics’ score of 79%. Directed by Shawn Levy, the superhero blockbuster marks the titular characters’ first foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe — the highest-grossing film franchise in history, with roughly $31 billion in global box office revenue. The movie was produced on a reported budget of $200 million; It Ends with Us, on the other hand, was produced on a reported budget of $25 million.
Deadpool & Wolverine has grossed $606 million domestically so far, and is already the highest-grossing R-rated movie in history. It will soon overtake The Avengers to become the fifth-biggest superhero movie of all time at the domestic box office. It Ends with Us, based on the novel by Colleen Hoover, has out-performed similar female-skewing literary adaptations such as The Girl on the Train ($173 million), Where the Crawdads Sing ($145 million), and Crazy Rich Asians ($237 million). You can watch both films in theaters, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
