China’s Film Bureau has approved a July 26 release for Disney/Marvel Studios’ Deadpool & Wolverine, arguably one of the most anticipated movies of the year globally. Marvel’s Weibo account announced the dating this morning Beijing time which Disney has confirmed. The release is day-and-date with the U.S. and marks the first time the Merc with a Mouth is going to China in step with the rest of the world. (Scroll below for a look at the new poster.)
The first Deadpool did not release in China while Deadpool 2, completely refashioned as Once Upon a Deadpool with new scenes to create a PG-13 version, was released there in early 2019, many months after the original DP2 had its run elsewhere. It went on to do about $40M in the market at today’s rates.
Disney/Marvel were not specific on cuts, but we understand the trims made to the Shawn Levy-directed D&W are minimal and due to violence, blood and gore, and language.
We also hear that no cuts were made that impact the integrity of the storytelling and that the Ryan Reynolds/Hugh Jackman-starrer remains authentic to the Deadpool spirit — unlike Once Upon a Deadpool.
There are no guarantees here as Hollywood films have continued to struggle at the Chinese box office in recent years. The top studio movie of 2024 there is Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire ($132.2M) which was handled locally by Legendary East. Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 4 ($51.6M) is in second place among Hollywood titles so far this year.
Including Deadpool & Wolverine, five out of the last six Marvel films were released in China: The Marvels (2023), Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (2023), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022). Of those, Guardians 3 was the top grosser at $87M. Logan, the most recent movie to feature Jackman’s Wolverine, did just over $100M in China back in 2017.
Last Friday, Deadpool & Wolverine hit six-week domestic tracking with a staggering opening projection of $200M-$239M. International rollout on D&W begins July 24.
