Between the massive Marvel team-up and a new Star Wars Story, it feels like the Merc with a Mouth could get overlooked during the big summer movie season. However, based on the early ticket sales it appears that won't be happening. In the first 24 hours of advanced tickets going on sale, Deadpool 2 has already broken the one-day pre-sale record for the second largest theater chain in the U.S., Regal Cinemas.
It seems like ticket sales records are being broken all the time, and often that's due to the fact that the numbers can be sliced up in a nearly infinite number of ways. In this case, we're talking about a record for only one specific theater chain. Still, the mere fact that Deadpool 2 was able to set the record with a specific chain is interesting. It's not clear what Regal did to entice more people to buy tickets to Deadpool 2 at its theaters. Deadline points out that some Regal theaters are showing double features on opening night of both Deadpool movies, but other film chains are doing that as well, so that alone isn't the reason. Although, a cursory glance seems to indicate that Regal is charging less for its double feature than other major chains like AMC and Cinemark, so that may have helped entice people over, and Regal made up for the discount by selling more tickets.
In the end, even if Deadpool 2 has only set a presale record with a particular theater chain, it is the second largest chain in the most important nation to the global box office, and that means that things are looking pretty good for Deadpool 2. The film opens in mid-May, following the release of Avengers: Infinity War and prior to that of Solo: A Star Wars Story at the end of May. That's a lot of tentpole movies for one month, but seeing Infinity War move one weekend earlier likely helped out Deadpool 2 as it means more people will have had a chance to see the massive Marvel movie prior to Deadpool 2 hitting theaters.
The road to Deadpool 2 has been a rocky one as director Tim Miller who helmed the first movie eventually left the project. More recently, some reports from test audiences had reportedly indicated the new film had some problems. Whatever has been going on behind the scenes, there's little argument that the trailers for Deadpool 2 have been just as hilarious as the first one, indicating there will likely be plenty for fans to enjoy.
Deadpool 2 likely won't end up with a box office quite as high as some other major releases this year, but it's off to a great start, and with, one expects, a much lower budget, it could end up still being one of the biggest success stories of the year. Deadpool 2 arrives May 18.
