18 February 2016 - Deadpool sets opening weekend record
Activer le mode zen
Viral campaigns have 'captured lightning in a bottle,' pulling moviegoers into 'Deadpool'
Actor Ryan Reynolds was in the middle of filming the hit action-comedy "Deadpool" in Canada last fall when he came up with the idea for a viral video stunt. Reynolds, dressed as the foul-mouthed antihero, would visit a playground in a Vancouver suburb on Halloween and lecture local youngsters on how to fight crime.
The resulting video caught fire on YouTube, collecting millions of views.
"At first the idea was, 'Let's go door-to-door and go trick-or-treating,' but there were safety concerns," said Marc Weinstock, president of domestic theatrical marketing at 20th Century Fox, the studio behind the movie.
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Marketing
Kevin P. Sullivan (Entertainment, 17/02/2016)
The superhero movie, starring Ryan Reynolds as a niche Marvel character known primarily to comic book readers and those unfortunate enough to have seen X-Men Origins: Wolverine, was developed and then blocked by 20th Century Fox for years until test footage the studio commissioned “leaked” online, and the fan demand grew too loud to ignore. The production got the greenlight on a relatively tight budget ($58 million) and a mid-February release date, both of which pointed to modest expectations on return.
Now, the industry is reeling from the massive surprise success of Deadpool, which took $132 million domestic in its opening weekend, roughly doubling what Fox’s pre-release tracking – traditionally geared toward lowering expectations – and became the biggest opening for a R-rated film.
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Review
Mark Kermode (The Guardian, 14/02/2016)
“A fourth wall break inside a fourth wall break? That’s like… 16 walls.” This relentlessly self-referential antihero romp comes on like a slightly smug corporate riposte to Matthew Vaughn’s altogether more anarchic Kick-Ass, flipping the bird at its own heritage (the opening titles tell us that it’s produced by “Ass-hats” and directed by “an overpaid tool”) and cracking wise about how confusing these comic-strip timelines have become, and the cheapskate nature of the ever-expanding X-Men universe. Ryan Reynolds is the potty-mouthed avenger whose life is ruined when enforced mutation robs him of his Hugo Boss chops, leaving him looking “like Freddy Krueger face-fucked a topographical map of Utah”. Limb-lopping sweary ultra-violence ensues, offering a fairly consistent stream of dirty cheap laughs as Deadpool gets rear-ended by bullets and butt-plugs alike, while those around him lose their hearts and heads – but mostly their heads. Inevitably the final act descends into the usual punchy/smashy orgy of collapsing buildings that is a dreary franchise requirement. But for the most part it’s crudely disreputable fare, buoyed up by ironic bubblegum tunes (a Guantanamo-style torture montage to the strains of Mr Sandman is a nice touch) and driven by Viz-style “shit biscuit” profanity.
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Sequel
Scott Beggs (Vanity Fair, 17/02/2016)
Deadpool does what a lot of superheroes do. He battles bad guys, he’s essentially indestructible, and he wears an insanely tight spandex suit. He (played by Ryan Reynolds) earned a lot of attention this weekend because he also curses like Ernest Hemingway on a bender, breaks the fourth wall to chat with the audience, and experiments sexually with his strip-club-waitress girlfriend, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin). Oh, and because his movie opened to an enormous $150 million over the holiday weekend, minting a brand-new franchise in the process.
Deadpool is undoubtedly the first superhero movie where the superhero gets (lovingly) anally penetrated by his main squeeze, and any signs of protest from Wade clearly have to do with physical discomfort, not gay panic. Deadpool still falls victim to a conservative, “damsel in distress” story line, but there are signs of spice here in the typically vanilla-glazed world of comic-book cinema. That’s partially because Deadpool is one of the few R-rated superhero movies, but the character of Deadpool himself is well suited for pushing boundaries. And, based on some chatter thus far, may push even more of them in the now-inevitable sequels to come.
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"18 February 2016 - Deadpool sets opening weekend record", La Clé des Langues [en ligne], Lyon, ENS de LYON/DGESCO (ISSN 2107-7029), février 2016. Consulté le 23/04/2024. URL: https://cle.ens-lyon.fr/anglais/key-story/archives-revue-de-presse-2016/18-february-2016-deadpool-sets-opening-weekend-record