Deadpool & Wolverine continues its reign as it gets the best R-rated, non-preview performance at the Thursday box office

M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap would not pose any kind of threat to the meta multiverse juggernaut that is Deadpool & Wolverine.

Did Deadpool & Wolverine save the MCU? It would depend upon how the proceed from here, but Deadpool & Wolverine definitely pulled the MCU out of the water for a breath of fresh air. The very meta film had a lot going for it with Hugh Jackman’s return and being the Merc’s induction into the MCU. Many knew it would be a hit, but as exciting as the concept was, the movie had more tricks up its sleeve and audiences are flocking to it.

Deadline has reported that Deadpool & Wolverine has continued to slash its competition as Thursday box office previews of other films aren’t strong enough to compete with the ongoing run of last week’s big superhero movie release. The Ryan Reynolds/Hugh Jackman action-comedy pulled in $18 million on Thursday, which already would have been nice if it was early preview numbers, but this is a non-preview gross for an R-rated film. The more mature rating usually limits the wider reach of an audience, which is why studios have had a history of taking certain properties and watering them down to PG-13. However, Deadpool & Wolverine has a massive crossover appeal where younger audiences may still get to see the film while accompanied by an adult, which renders that philosophy rather moot.

Deadpool & Wolverine ends its first week at $298.5 million. Meanwhile, the new suspense film from M. Night Shyamalan, Trap, was hoping for a $15 million to $20 million opening. Trap would earn only $2.2 million for the Thursday preview. While Shyamalan fans were hoping for a new revitalization with this intriguing concept, the film would get a 44% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Our own Tyler Nichols found the film to be frustrating as his review stated, “I’m just sick of Shyamalan creating these great concepts and being so incapable of sticking the landing. For every great moment in Trap, there’s an illogical one that feels like it was written by a teenager. Unless something changes, I think I may be done with Shyamalan in the theater.”

Sony would also have a new family film with Shazam‘s Zachary Levi titled Harold and the Purple Crayon, but the very small net the studio cast for the film would open to $725k for the early weekend.

About the Author

E.J. is a News Editor at JoBlo, as well as a Video Editor, Writer, and Narrator for some of the movie retrospectives on our JoBlo Originals YouTube channel, including Reel Action, Revisited and some of the Top 10 lists. He is a graduate of the film program at Missouri Western State University with concentrations in performance, writing, editing and directing.