Deadpool and his foul-mouthed crew of misfits and malcontents have taken down the Avengers.
Fox's "Deadpool 2" brought in $125 million this weekend, giving it the second-highest opening ever for an R-rated movie and ending the three-week reign of Disney's "Avengers: Infinity War" at the top of the North American box office, according to studio estimates Sunday.
FILE - This image released by Twentieth Century Fox shows Ryan Reynolds in a scene from "Deadpool 2." Fox’s “Deadpool 2” brought in $125 million according to studio estimates Sunday, May 20, 2018, and ended the three-week reign of Disney’s “Avengers: Infinity War” at the top of the North American box office. (Twentieth Century Fox via AP, File)
"Deadpool 2," with Ryan Reynolds returning as the title character and co-writing this time, fell somewhat short of the $130 million the studio predicted and the $132.4 million that its predecessor earned two years ago.
Analysts and the studio said the difference can be attributed to the first film opening on a holiday weekend, and could easily be made up with Memorial Day coming, despite the looming competition from "Solo: A Star Wars Story."
"I think with a holiday on our second weekend we'll catch 'Deadpool' if not exceed it," said Chris Aronson, distribution chief for 20th Century Fox.
The film grossed $176.3 million internationally and opened better overseas than the first, especially finding audiences in Latin America.
The Avengers are hardly hurting. Disney and Marvel's "Avengers: Infinity War" brought in an estimated $29 million in North America for a four-week take of $595 million domestically and $1.2 billion overseas. It's now the fifth highest grossing film of all time worldwide.
FILE - This image released by Marvel Studios shows, from left, Benedict Cumberbatch, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo and Benedict Wong in a scene from "Avengers: Infinity War." Fox’s “Deadpool 2” brought in $125 million according to studio estimates Sunday, May 20, 2018, and ended the three-week reign of Disney’s “Avengers: Infinity War” at the top of the North American box office. (Marvel Studios via AP, File)
In a whole different corner of the cinematic universe, "Book Club" was third with a $12.5 million weekend that exceeded expectations.
It was a successful piece of counter-programming for Paramount, which used the modestly budgeted comedy starring Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton and Candice Bergen to find older audiences and women while "Deadpool 2" dwelled overwhelmingly on young men.
"There are definitely audiences out there for whom superhero movies are not their cup of tea," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore.
FILE - This image released by Twentieth Century Fox shows Shioli Kutsuna, left, and Brianna Hildebrand in a scene from "Deadpool 2." Fox’s “Deadpool 2” brought in $125 million according to studio estimates Sunday, May 20, 2018, and ended the three-week reign of Disney’s “Avengers: Infinity War” at the top of the North American box office. (Joe Lederer/Twentieth Century Fox via AP, File)
"Deadpool 2" follows the proudly foul formula of the first, mixing the usual superhero set pieces with gore, gross-out jokes, 80s power ballads and frequent fourth-wall violations.
The box office of the second film suggests that formula can become a long-term franchise, and builds its possibilities with the addition of antihero teammates from Marvel Comics for the title character, including Josh Brolin's Cable and Zazie Beetz's Domino.
"The source material is so vast and rich that I don't think there's any question that it just opens the door for more," Aronson said.
Along with the earnings and acclaim for last year's R-rated "Logan," Fox has made itself the early leader in the burgeoning subgenre.
"The R-rating may be restrictive in terms of the audience make-up, but it's certainly not restrictive in the creative freedom it offers, so when movies like these hit, they can hit big," Dergarabedian said. "There is a place for the R rating. In the superhero genre it offers endless and really cool possibilities."
"Deadpool 2" next faces off with "Solo," but the two films along with the still-earning "Avengers" ought to make for a major Memorial Day for the industry.
"This marketplace is big enough for all these films," Dergarabedian said.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to comScore. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. "Deadpool 2," $125 million ($176.3 million international).
2."Avengers: Infinity War," $28.6 million ($84.4 million international).
3. "Book Club," $12.5 million.
4. "Life of the Party," $7.7 million ($1.3 million international).
5. "Breaking In," $6.4 million ($300,000 international).
6. "Show Dogs," $6 million.
7. "Overboard," $4.7 million ($4.1 million international).
8. "A Quiet Place," $4 million ($18.8 million international).
9. "Rampage," $1.5 million ($4.4 million international).
10. "I Feel Pretty," $1.2 million ($1.7 million international).
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Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada), according to comScore:
1. "Deadpool 2," $176.3 million.
2."Avengers: Infinity War," $84.4 million.
3. "How Long Will I Love U," $36.3 million.
4. "A Quiet Place," $18.8 million.
5. "Rampage," $4.4 million.
6. "Peter Rabbit," $4.1 million.
7. "Overboard," $4.1 million.
8. "Blumhouse's Truth or Dare," $3.4 million.
9. "Burning," $2.3 million.
10. "Sherlock Gnomes," $2 million.
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Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by 21st Century Fox; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Phish has been performing for decades, but never has the band played the same show twice.
Over the 40 years since the band was formed at a Vermont college, Phish has amassed a reputation for its dedicated legion of fans and the dazzling light shows that accompany the improvisational jams. It follows, then, that the next stop for Phish is the new temple of immersive performances: the Sphere in Las Vegas.
Inaugurated with U2's 40-show residency, the $2.3 billion arena will offer Phish fans something they've definitely never seen — or felt — before.
Mind-blowing visuals run up, down and across the floor-to-ceiling screen, designed to be manipulated in real-time during the band’s long jams. A sound system features more than 1,600 speakers, allowing for a Trey Anastasio guitar line in one spot and a line from Page McConnell’s keys in another. Seats make you feel like you’re inside every drum kick from Jon Fishman or bass bomb from Mike Gordon.
Starting Thursday, Phish will play four shows, with new visuals each night — and no repeated songs, of course. Anastasio, the band's frontman, says fans will be able to discern a theme across the shows … and find lots of Easter eggs. The shows will be the first to be livestreamed from the Sphere as well on LivePhish.com.
“I love getting up in the morning and creatively thinking of another cool thing to blow people’s minds,” Anastasio says.
Anastasio talked to The Associated Press this week about the teamwork that goes into these shows, how their “giant rolling family” of fans keeps them going and whether there will ever be another Gamehendge.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
ANASTASIO: It’s extremely unique to any venue that we’ve played before. One of the things that we’ve tried to do is sculpt our show so that we can be the band that we always are and play to our strengths while simultaneously using the technology to kind of expand the elements of the show — like the adventure and the breaking free of boundaries.
ANASTASIO: Constantly. Daily. Yesterday. We dropped some things yesterday. It’s a constant process of waking up in the morning and looking for areas that we can improve. Everyone on the team is incredible, but the level of communication and proactive teamwork is hard to describe. And that’s what it takes to get something like this mounted. But yeah, there were ideas on what the thematic narrative that was going to run through the four nights that went on for a month. Then we landed on one. Then it was what songs we’re going to play, what the (visual) content was going to be, how literal we wanted to make it. The answer to that is not very literal. Our fans are really smart and really involved, and we wanted to take a night or so for people to figure out what we were doing, plant a lot of Easter eggs and things like that. But it’s a never-ending daily improvement.
ANASTASIO: We’re a very different band. We’ve never repeated a set and we didn’t want to start now. So we created four unique Sphere shows, top to bottom. There was a moment where we were discussing adding shows, because the tickets blew out pretty hard. And we decided as a team that they would be good, but not necessarily astounding — which is the level that we wanted to operate at — unless we just repeated the exact same show over again. The other thing is that Phish is such a wacky community that it kind of set up this scenario where a lot of people would probably want to come back. It’s just the way our fans are. It’s kind of like a big, giant rolling family or community or something like that.
ANASTASIO: Always. Always. I just love the feeling of being part of a group, working on something creative, especially when it’s firing on all cylinders and people communicate well. It’s been one of the great joys of my life. That’s what a band is. A good band is a family. It’s a team. It’s communication and listening and it’s hard to describe what a joy it is when you spend almost a year working on — like what we did last year (with a New Year’s Eve performance of the band’s epic set of “Gamehendge” songs, complete with stage actors and puppets). It’s like you feel like you’re alive. And the Sphere has been like that, too.
ANASTASIO: Huge. It’s everything. The fans and the community are everything. We have intelligent, focused fans and we have to honor that. You know, they’re not casual fans and that’s really cool. It’s an honor and it’s a massive responsibility. I feel like the longer this goes, the more we owe. The fans have supported us for 40 years — it’s our responsibility to keep raising the bar. Which is a great challenge. And it’s very unique. If you really look at the series of events that we continue to put on, that’s the thinking that goes behind it. You know, the fact that there were people in the audience last New Year’s Eve who have seen Phish 300 times, who were crying according to what I heard — and I was too, by the way — meant so much to all of us. It’s everything that we want. Which is to honor and respect the people that have been coming to see us for years. We feel like they’re family and they deserve our care and attention about every detail.
ANASTASIO: I don’t know, I actually don’t know. ... OK, first of all, I wanted to improve it. As soon as it was over I was like, “Oh, I know what I could have (changed).” So then I thought, “Oh, we should save all these props that are really — they’re really expensive.” But then it was kind of like, if there is, it’s going to be better, or it’s going to be built upon. Sort of the way this one was built upon. The previous one, even though it was 30 years ago. I hope it’s not 30 years. I’d like to do it. In the Phish world, it’s like the second it’s over … the next morning you wake up like I start working on the Sphere. Go meet (co-creative director Abigail Rosen Holmes) downtown at a coffee shop with a laptop and start riffing. I mean, I’m here in Vegas, and yesterday morning I was on a call (about this summer’s Mondegreen festival) with the coolest, smartest people who are working on that. Oh my God.
Page McConnell, keyboardist for the band Phish, poses for a photograph during an interview on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)
Abigail Rosen Holmes, show director and co-creative director for the band Phish's upcoming show at the Sphere, poses for a photograph during an interview on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)
Trey Anastasio, guitarist and singer-songwriter of the band Phish, gestures during an interview on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)
Trey Anastasio, guitarist and singer-songwriter of the band Phish, gestures during an interview on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)
Trey Anastasio, guitarist and singer-songwriter of the band Phish, poses for a photograph during an interview on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)
Trey Anastasio, guitarist and singer-songwriter of the band Phish, poses for a photograph during an interview on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)
