6 Lessons Deadpool is Teaching Hollywood (and Only One of Them Is Bad!)
*MINOR DEADPOOL SPOILERS*
Did you see Deadpool this weekend? Probably (it's why this article goes up before my Zoolander 2 barn-burner). It set all sorts of box office records, including the largest February opening of all time, trouncing former front runner 50 Shades of Grey. This is a huge victory for the very vocal supporters of the Merc with a Mouth, who have been championing the film since some test-footage was leaked over a year ago. That being said, nobody really saw Deadpool coming, or at least they didn't expect it to be so large. What is to blame for this drastic underestimation? And what will this mean for future movies? Here's my theory.
1. Women Can be Nerds Now (and They Really Like Deadpool)
What? No. This can't be. Deadpool is clearly a character for boys. He's vulgar, bloody, and all sorts of things that aren't a Barbie Dream House. If Deadpool was successful it had nothing to do with women.
Except it did. Despite suggestion that Deadpool could only be big if "boyfriends could convince their girlfriends to see it", women made up over half the audience. Personally scrolling down my Facebook feed, I saw at least the same amount of women posting selfies at the film as men. Probably more. On a weekend that is traditionally driven by "chick flicks" Deadpool is a clear indicator of what "chicks" are looking for. Apparently, that's a man in spandex dual-wielding katanas. Happy Valentines day.
This shouldn't have been such a surprise. Since the dawn of the MCU (which I know Deadpool isn't a part of) women have been showing up in larger quantities to superhero movies. This could stem from a few places. One: women are just seeing more movies lately. Two: Women are becoming more vocal and accepted members of the "nerd" community.
It used to be (and still kind of is) harder to be a nerd as a girl. The community can be rude, and occasionally hostile to potential female members. But as nerd culture shifted to the mainstream thanks to a cavalcade of superhero movies, it's borders swelled as well. As more and more females joined the congregation, they looked for a nice jumping off point to get into comics. Something not to lore-heavy and easily accessible. Something entertaining that also introduced various tropes of the graphic medium. In other words, something like Deadpool.
2. Quality Matters
Even though Deadpool has a huge female fan-base, surely it's not on par with that of the former February champion 50 Shades of Grey, right? From a numbers standpoint, there’s no denying 50 Shades had a huge lead in terms of source material. It's an international best-seller, and has sold over 100 Million copies worldwide. That's almost 1 in 3 americans. Woof. Naturally, it went on to crush the weekend box office, with over 80 million dollars domestically, and raked in 500 million dollars worldwide before it left theaters.
But that's really not that impressive, when you think about it. The average ticket price is a little over 8 dollars, so if everyone who bought the book saw the movie, 50 Shades is about 300 million shy of where it should be. I mean, that thing was a phenomenon, wasn't it? Every late-night show in the country did segments on it, everyone from Churches to BDSM communities were calling for its removal, why didn't this beat Star Wars, Jurassic World, and the second Avengers movie combined?!?!?
Because it sucked. It was boring. Somehow, they managed to make a movie about two incredibly gorgeous human beings having kinky sexy sex, a real snoozer. Less than 1 in 4 critics liked it, and even more damning less than half the audience enjoyed it.
Contrast that with Deadpool, which is 5% away from a perfect audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. The people who saw it loved it, told their friends, brought their friends, and probably grabbed a few homeless guys on the way to the theater to make sure everyone saw it.
3. R-Rated Movies are Fine!
This is no secret, Hollywood is afraid of the MPAA. Their like Hollywood's parents, threatening to ground them with an R-rating or disown them with an NC-17. PG-13 is like coming in a few minutes after curfew. It's only a stern warning, but you can still look cool in front of Derek. Who's Derek? Doesn't matter.
It seems like every time an R-rated movie does well, people speculate that Hollywood finally moved out of it's parents house, and was now an adult who could make it's own decisions. The Hangover and Kick-Ass had people wondering if Hollywood had finally gotten over it's daddy issues. Instead, it chickens out every time there's a Hangover 2, or Kick-ass 2, noticing the R in the rating instead of the 2 in the title.
But this is the biggest R rated opening of all time. And last year had the previous record holder, not to mention Kingsman, which came out the same weekend, and was also a bona fide smash. So now Hollywood knows that as long as a movie meets a certain quality of standard it doesn't matter what it's rated.
But here are the lessons they'll learn instead.
4. More Deadpool
I mean, duh, right? This one's not even bad. I like this one.
Deadpool is so hot right now. There's a point in the movie when Deadpool shows up to the X-Mansion and jokes about how there are only two X-Men there, like the studio couldn't afford any more. Here's the thing: Deadpool made more than Days of Future Past opening weekend. It's on track to make more than Days of Future Past, period. It's on track to be the biggest X-Men film. Let that sink in.
Hugh Jackman has said he's done with X-men movies (not because he doesn't like them, don't think that guys) and people are wondering who could replace Wolverine. After this weekend, that problem has no doubt solved itself. Deadpool is Fox's knight in red spandex, destined to become as (if not more) iconic as Wolvie himself.
This isn't necessarily a good thing.
5. Neutered Deadpool
WHAT? F*** YOU. I know. I'm not happy about it either.
On the surface, it seems like the lesson from Deadpool is Superhero movies can be R-Rated, as long as they're super awesome. But studios don't really comprehend what "awesome" is. They know what success is. It's why 50 shades is getting a sequel, and it's realistically why Deadpool is getting a sequel, and probably a whole franchise. But Fox doesn't want a franchise. Fox wants a whole freaking universe.
There's no doubt in my mind, Deadpool 2 is going to be a hard R, full of blood, butts, and bad words. But that's not the only place Deadpool is going to show up. I don't think he's going to be in Apocalypse, but the next X-men movie? Yeah, Deadpool's in that. I'm not even sure if it's too late to shoehorn him into Gambit later this year. And while Deadpool, the movie, has to be rated R, Deadpool, the character, isn't going to get his F-bombs into an X-men movie any time soon.
As for toning down his violence, it's as simple as not putting it in. The Wolverine, the good (not great) Wolverine solo movie, was originally going to be a bloody, R-rated, Black Swan directed, gore-fest. But the director dropped out, was replaced, and the studio got cold feet. Since most blood in movies is CGI (that dirty dirty word) it was pretty easy to solve the problem: just don't put the blood in. Now Wolverine's multiple stab wound attacks also magically cauterize said stab wounds. And they'll do the same thing to Deadpool.
6. February Gets Movies
Let's end this on a happy note.
Traditionally January 1st to May 1st, the titles added to a theater's marquee might as well be "Hey, The Theater's Heated, Come Watch This Crap" or "We Didn't Have Much Confidence In This One: It's Bad". The first four months of the year were considered a no-man's land, in which nobody saw movies, and thusly, movies were awful. Disproving this self-fulfilling prophecy; the Fast and Furious movies, releasing in Marches and Aprils. Suddenly, studios thought, "March and April are months? Put movies in them, NOW!" Six years later, Batman is fighting Superman in March.
The same could be said for January. Ride Along does well over MLK weekend, and suddenly January is the time to make movies for the African American community. Other January note: American Sniper beats Ride Along's record in 2015, in 2016 we get 13 Hours, because now January is "Patriotic War Film That Contradicts Liberal Agenda" month... Studios get really weirdly specific, almost fetishistic, when it comes to releasing similar movies hoping to duplicate success.
After February of 2015 gave us 50 Shades and Kingsmen, and February of 2016 gave us Deadpool, I have a guess that "Hyper Violent Comedy with Gratuitous Nudity" is going to be the smash hit next Valentine's Day. That being said, I'm totally willing to write that movie. Seriously, call me.
