Ryan Reynolds reacts to Deadpool & Wolverine smashing box office records on opening weekend

Film crosses $200m in opening weekend, one of nine other movies in Hollywood’s history with the record

Ryan Reynolds has responded to Deadpool & Wolverine’s massive $438m global opening at the box office.

The Green Lantern star posted an Instagram story sharing his happiness: “This is kind of hard to process. But thank you to everyone who went to see the film this weekend.”

The superhero film collected $205m in its opening weekend in North America, and ranks at number eight in the list of films which crossed $200m in its opening weekend. Only nine films in the history of Hollywood have managed to hit this milestone.

Deadpool & Wolverine is ahead of 2018’s Black Panther which brought in $202m and behind 2015’s Jurassic World, which made $208m and 2012’s The Avengers, which made $207m.

This is also the biggest opening for an R-rated film, and surpassed the first film in the franchise, 2016’s Deadpool, which opened at $132m.

The film, also starring Hugh Jackman and directed by Shawn Levy, also overtook Disney’s Pixar sequel Inside Out 2, which opened at $155m.

The third installment of the Deadpool franchise, which released on Friday, July 26, sees the return of Reynolds, as the “merc with a mouth” alongside Jackman’s bearded mutant, who was seemingly killed off in 2017’s Logan.

Jackman too posted on his social media with a picture of his character Wolverine looking at a framed photo reading, “#1 movie in the world” with a caption that said: “Wolverine and Deadpool is the #1 movie in the world. Thank you ALL!”

Levy shared a behind-the-scenes photo on his Instagram, sharing how he felt working with Reynolds and called him “a generational talent”.

“Eight years ago, @vancityreynolds changed the game with #Deadpool. He set a record for R-rated openings and he reinvented the superhero genre along the way. ...Today he’s obliterated his own box-office record, and he’s shuffled the deck yet again,” his post read.

“He makes it all look so effortless, which is why it’s sometimes easy to forget how very hard and singular this man’s achievement is.

Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds on the Deadpool & Wolverine set (Shawn Levy/Instagram)

“But make no mistake: he is a generational talent. Offscreen and on, Ryan is skilled and generous like no one I’ve ever known. He’s also the kindest buddy a person could ever have. It’s the great joy and privilege of my career to work alongside @vancityreynolds.”

Critics have been divided in their reviews, with The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey calling it a “tedious and annoying corporate merger of a film”, and assigning it a paltry two stars.