Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively rule with their films, first couple in 34 years to top US box office
Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively Photograph:( X )
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Hollywood had witnessed a similar phenomenon 34 years back- in 1990 when Bruce Willis’ Die Hard 2 led the box office while Demi Moore’s Ghost came in second.
Hollywood had witnessed a similar phenomenon 34 years back- in 1990 when Bruce Willis’ Die Hard 2 led the box office while Demi Moore’s Ghost came in second.
They are known as a power couple for a reason. Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively have both come out as winners at the box office. Reynold's Deadpool & Wolverine has been declared a bonafide hit as it remained at the top in North American theatres for the third straight week and has collected over $54.2 million in ticket sales. Worldwide it has now surpassed $1 billion. Meanwhile, Reynold's wife Blake Lively has made a splashing impression in the romance drama It Ends With US which exceeded expectations with a stellar $50 million debut.
Together, the films created a kind of family edition of Barbenheimer, in which a pair of very different movies thrived partly due to counterprogramming. Only this time, the opposite movies were fronted by one of Hollywood’s most famous couples. The film’s one-two punch wasn’t entirely unprecedented. Hollywood had witnessed a similar phenomenon 34 years back- in 1990 when Bruce Willis’ Die Hard 2 led the box office while Demi Moore’s Ghost came in second.
The weekend also featured a high-priced flop. Borderlands, the long-delayed $120-million videogame adaptation directed by Eli Roth, launched with a paltry $8.8 million for Lionsgate. The film, starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart and Jack Black, was shot back in 2021. After delays and reshoots, it finally landed in theatres effectively dead on arrival; it scored just 10% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and seems likely to contend for one of the worst movies of the year.
Meanwhile, Deadpool & Wolverine, which co-stars Hugh Jackman, continued its march through box-office records. The film, directed by Shawn Levy, is only the second R-rated movie to reach $1 billion, following 2019's Joker. In three weeks, it’s already one of the most lucrative Marvel releases and trails only Disney’s other 2024 smash, Inside Out 2 ($1.6 billion worldwide) among movies released this year.
Lively makes a cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine but she both stars in and produced It Ends With Us. Adapted from the bestselling romance novel by Colleen Hoover, Lively stars as Lily Bloom, a Boston florist torn between two men, one from her present life (Justin Baldoni, who also directed the film) and another who was her first love (Brandon Sklenar).
Wait, did you also spot Ali Fazal in Blake Lively's gorgeous Vogue photoshoot?
It Ends With Us cost a modest $25 million to produce, so it will turn a significant profit for co-financers Columbia Pictures and Wayfarer Studios. Like another female-skewing summer-release book adaptation from Sony, Where the Crawdads Sing, It Ends With Us could hold well through the typically slower August box-office period. Audiences gave it an A- CinemaScore.
Reynolds and Lively occasionally played up the convergence of their movies. Earlier this week, Reynolds posted a video of himself posing questions to Sklenar. The timing paid off, especially for Lively, whose film doubled earlier opening weekend forecasts.
Here are the top 10 highest-grossing films of this weekend at the North American box office:
1. Deadpool & Wolverine, $54.2 million.
2. It Ends With Us, $50 million.
3. Twisters, $15 million.
4. Borderlands, $8.8 million.
5. Despicable Me 4, $8 million.
6. Trap, $6.7 million.
7. Inside Out 2, $5 million.
8. Harold and the Purple Crayon, $3.1 million.
9. Cuckoo, $3 million.
10. Longlegs, $2 million.
(With agency inputs)
