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"Deadpool and Wolverine" really became the savior of Marvel.

As a blockbuster movie in which Marvel tries to reverse the future in one battle, Marvel not only invited Wolverine and Deadpool to combine, but also found a luxurious guest lineup including Henry Cavill, the old Blade, and Captain America's version of the Human Torch.

The film is directed by Shawn Levy, the director of "Stranger Things" and "Night at the Museum".

Marvel has invested $200 million, and it cannot afford to lose this battle.

As a result, Marvel won a big victory in the North American and global markets.

"Deadpool & Wolverine" closed at $38.5 million in North American advance screenings, significantly breaking the R-rated movie record of $18 million achieved by "Deadpool 2", ranking eighth in the history of domestic advance screenings, only slightly lower than "Avengers 3"'s $39 million.

The media predicts that the film’s North American box office is expected to break the $200 million mark in its first weekend.

Good news also came from overseas markets. The film began to be released early in some markets outside North America on Wednesday this week. As of Thursday (including Wednesday and Thursday), it had grossed 64.8 million US dollars in 48 markets outside North America.

Combined with the 38.5 million from advance screenings in North America, the global box office exceeded 100 million U.S. dollars in just two days, which is over 720 million RMB.

However, the film’s performance in the Chinese market was somewhat lackluster.

Although it took in 60.58 million yuan on its first day in the mainland on Friday, setting a record for the highest first-day box office for a comic-based movie since the epidemic, in comparison, "Avengers 3", which had a similar global box office in the first two days, took in 330 million yuan in the Chinese market on its first day.

Moreover, despite the film’s good box office performance on the first day, its Saturday screening share dropped to 14.3%, lower than the 18.7% on the first day. On the other hand, “Under the Aliens”, which ranked third on the first day, received 25.6% of the screenings.

"Catching Dolls" continues to lead the box office.

Caught between two blockbuster films, the platform predicts the film's total box office to be only 363 million yuan, which is almost the same as the first-day box office of "Avengers 3" in mainland China.

Such a gap inevitably makes people feel that the world has changed a lot. As a benchmark for Hollywood commercial films in the past decade, Marvel's golden age of "Avengers 4" selling 4.248 billion in the mainland market may never come again. Even if "Deadpool and Wolverine" are overwhelming in the global market, it can only reap a mediocre ending in the Chinese market.

Today we are going to talk about the three highlights and three shortcomings of this movie, as well as the huge changes behind Marvel movies in the Chinese market.

1. Three highlights: Wolverine returns, Henry Chou and old Blade help out, giving the X-Men universe a decent farewell

Although the film encountered a lot of doubts on Douban, it was a huge hit in the North American market that exceeded expectations, proving that audiences in North America were quite satisfied with the film.

The whole movie is a story about a Deadpool version of the multiverse + Wolverine reversing the future again.

Although the story creativity is average, the three highlights are enough for Marvel to sweep the global box office.

The first highlight, of course, is the super gorgeous guest lineup.

It can be said that this time Marvel has brought together all the superheroes who have not been doing well in the past decade.

The story follows the 2018 "Deadpool 2". After getting Cable's time machine, Deadpool went directly to the main universe of the MCU to apply for a job at Stark Industries. The interviewer was Happy, Iron Man's driver. When Deadpool saw the photo of Downey Jr. as Iron Man, his emotions began to soar.

As a result, Deadpool was eliminated. After all, the Marvel Universe was at its peak in 2018, and not everyone could get in.

The frustrated Deadpool mercenary quit and went back to being a car salesman, but the Time Management Bureau found him and asked him to join forces with Wolverine from another universe to save the world.

The small TV shown to him by Mr. Paradox, the director of TVA at the time, was playing clips of "Avengers 2", "Thor 3" and "WandaVision". When Captain America appeared, Deadpool even saluted.

After receiving the mission, Deadpool began to travel to various parallel worlds to look for Wolverine. In the process, he successfully found Hugh Jackman's super version of Wolverine. It must be said that if it weren't for Hugh Jackman, Hugh Jackman's figure and temperament would really be super consistent with Wolverine's personality.

Of course, the result was that Deadpool was completely defeated by Tycoon's steel fork.

In the end, Deadpool finally found a useless Wolverine who was drinking all day and couldn't even move his claws properly.

The Time Management Bureau was very dissatisfied with Deadpool's work, so they sent him and Wolverine to the Realm of Nothingness. You can also say that it is the graveyard of Fox superheroes. All superheroes who have no sequels to shoot will be sent here.

Marvel also made a joke of "Mad Max" here.

So here, Deadpool saw the face of the only man besides Thor who had ever lifted Thor's hammer.

Everyone thought they saw Captain America, but it turned out to be Chris Evans’ Human Torch, one of the Fantastic Four.

I have to say that Mr. Tao’s cameo was hilarious. His character was mean, sharp-tongued and vicious, but he was eventually torn off the line by the female villain.

Alone and helpless, Wolf and Deadpool had to look for help elsewhere, and they found the grown-up wolf girl X23, Gambit, Erica, and Blade.

It is worth mentioning that before becoming Deadpool, "Deadpool" Ryan Reynolds once played the role of Blade's assistant in "Blade 3".

The ending of the story is not difficult to guess. The female villain certainly cannot be a match for Deadpool and Wolverine.

But the surprise was not actually the plot. Marvel cleverly used the framework of a road movie and rationally introduced one classic character after another. It can be said to be the strongest and most gorgeous cameo lineup in the history of superheroes, making people feel as if they are in a big gathering of superheroes.

This is the first surprise the movie gives to the audience.

The second surprise of the movie is the return of Wolf and Deadpool.

In my opinion, the biggest highlight of the film is Wolverine.

When Wolverine showed up in his classic yellow jersey, at least the audience in my audience was thrilled.

Wolverine's fighting skills and aura in the film are no less than those of the past, and it can be seen that Hugh Jackman's acting skills have indeed reached the next level. This version of Wolverine was criticized by the Time Management Bureau as the weakest Wolverine in all the universes. Due to his absence, the mutants in his universe were annihilated. The film obviously borrowed the character of Wolverine from the comic "Homecoming", and Hugh Jackman's acting breakthrough should make many old fans cry.

And when the bitter, vengeful, ruthless and taciturn Wolverine faces the chattering and shameless Deadpool, as soon as Wolverine frowns or shows his claws, the two will start fighting immediately. Deadpool will make a few sarcastic remarks and make some jokes, and the two will immediately reconcile and go to save the universe.

This strong chemical reaction is irresistible.

And Deadpool still maintains a humorous and tragic temperament, "If I'm going to die, at least I'm taking everyone with me."

The third surprise of the movie is the X-Men fan movie plot that was created with a lot of money.

For example, the interaction between x23 and Wolverine after his appearance. When the two put on glasses, hugged their dogs and looked at each other, time seemed to have returned to the memory scene of "Wolverine 3" 7 years ago.

What the older generation of audiences find most unacceptable is probably the ending footage.

When the young Wolverine stood among the X-Men, even though the audience knew Marvel was going for sentimentality, they still couldn't hold back their tears.

The film mourns the Fox Cinematic Universe and the end of the X-Men series.

For old fans, there is no need to discuss whether the plot is reasonable or the action is exciting, because the movie is a hodgepodge of tributes and memes. Various movie-loving memes, memes complaining about the merger of Fox and Disney, and Marvel Avengers self-deprecating memes are enough to double the happiness of movie fans.

2. Three major regrets: ordinary plot, reasonable deletions, and consumption of feelings. Has Wolverine saved Marvel again?

But relying solely on these highlights, the film can at most capture the North American and global markets, but it will be difficult to conquer the Chinese market, which is flooded with blockbuster summer movies.

Three regrets in the film have caused constant controversy among Chinese audiences.

The first and biggest controversy is that the plot is too bland and the villains are too easily defeated.

One of the main reasons why "Avengers 3 and 4" are so good is that the once invincible Avengers encountered a super powerful opponent, Thanos.

If a superhero movie lacks a powerful villain, saving the world would be meaningless.

In this film, Emma Corrin plays Professor X's sister. Although her appearance is cool, the opening scene is full of oppression.

But once entering the second half of the story, they were quickly defeated by the joint efforts of Deadpool and Wolverine. The setting of the villains was full of loopholes, and the audience could not fully engage in it. The main story was not interesting, and the only thing left to watch was the crosstalk.

The second controversial point is the degree of deletion.

Some viewers compared the differences between the mainland version and the original version, and believed that the version that domestic audiences see now still retains the scale to the greatest extent. The amount of blood sprayed in some shots has been reduced, and the swear words have been muted. The actual deleted scenes are just about 2 minutes of jokes about severed limbs and beheadings, or things that cannot be translated.

None of the highlights were deleted.

It should be said that even if the scenes were cut, it would not affect the excitement of the main course of the movie, but for the audience who insist on watching the full version, it is still a bit regrettable.

The third controversial point is the over-consumption of sentiment.

Watching the film as a whole, it is still the popular routine of three generations of Spider-Man in the same frame.

Just like that movie, although the special effects and scenes of this film are acceptable, the plot of this film is still the old routine of Hollywood productions, which is really unremarkable and lacks novelty.

In the movie, Deadpool reversed the future of his universe and got help from Wolverine who traveled through time and space. It also reminded people of 2014's "X-Men: Days of Future Past".

After 10 years of twists and turns, we still have to rely on Wolverine at every critical moment.

In order to continue the vitality of the soul characters of the X-Men series, Marvel invited back Hugh Jackman. Hugh Jackman's good acting skills and physical condition make Wolverine still have the same charm as before even when he is old, which is the prerequisite for the success of the film.

But seeing the 56-year-old Wolf continuing to fight, old fans feel a little uncomfortable.

The release of this film also shows from another perspective that today's Hollywood is really lacking in new stories and new ideas, and can only "put new wine in old bottles" and repeatedly let Wolverine break out of the arena.

But now that Wolverine has used up his trump card, what other nostalgic cards can Marvel play?

Is it that only Donny Wolverine is left? But the actors are all old, how can the story continue?

3. Deadpool and Wolverine helped Marvel recover, but Marvel can never return to Avengers 4

For Chinese audiences, their impression of Marvel movies may still be stuck on the sensation caused by "Avengers 4: End Game" in 2019.

For many viewers, there is no point in watching Marvel movies without Iron Man.

Robert Downey Jr., who was paid only $500,000 at the time, and Marvel saved each other. Together with Captain America played by Chris Evans and Thor played by Chris Hemsworth, who also had limited fame, the "Avengers Big Three" made Marvel's first three stages a success.

Especially in the "third phase", in addition to the two "Avengers" films with box office exceeding 2 billion US dollars, there are 4 films with box office exceeding 1 billion US dollars and 3 films with box office exceeding 800 million US dollars.

However, in the final works of Marvel's first three stages, Iron Man died and Captain America "retired". Marvel created a tragic hero's exit, but did not expect that Marvel would fall into the dilemma of lack of successors.

Marvel's fourth phase works began to have various problems with content quality. Not only did their reputation decline, but except for "Spider-Man: No Homecoming" which grossed $1.901 billion worldwide, the box office of other films also fell into a slump. "Captain Marvel 2" even brought Marvel's global box office to the bottom.

But the success of "No Return of the Hero" can be summed up in four words: "three insects in the same frame."

If the current level is maintained until "Avengers 5" and "Avengers 6", it may be difficult to see Marvel's highlights.

On the other hand, superhero movies themselves have also fallen into a slump. Audiences are tired of seeing superheroes saving the earth time and time again. Instead, the anti-superhero "The Boys" series is very popular.

This may be the reason why Marvel played the trump card of Deadpool teaming up with Wolverine in this golden age of deconstruction and began to integrate the X-Men and the Fantastic Four into the Marvel Universe.

Marvel needed new bottles to put new wine in. As it turns out, Deadpool and Wolverine did it.

However, it is probably difficult to change the decline of Marvel and Hollywood in the mainland market.

In 2017, there were 8 Hollywood movies whose box office in mainland China exceeded 1 billion yuan; in 2018, it was 8; in 2019, it dropped to 5; in 2021 and 2022, the number dropped to 2.

In 2023, no Hollywood movie sold over 1 billion yuan in mainland China. From 2024 to date, only "King Kong vs. Godzilla 2" has entered the top ten box office in mainland China.

In essence, as the Chinese film industry develops, the shortcomings of the stereotyped plots of superhero movies are exposed.

Chinese audiences no longer buy this.

Only movies like "Catch the Dolls" and "Hot as Hell" that can touch the hearts of Chinese audiences can achieve a box office of over 3 billion yuan.

This is also why I felt complicated when I walked out of the cinema. It was an unprecedented movie-watching experience.

I think "Deadpool vs. Wolverine" is a sincere work of Marvel and the best work Marvel can produce now, although its story is mediocre and lacks novelty, it is difficult to attract the attention of young audiences.

But for old fans, when they heard Hugh Jackman say the word Mutant, they might not be able to control their tears.

This is the 24th year since the release of "X-Men" and the 7th year since the release of "Logan". Old audiences may still remember the moment when they walked out of the theater after watching "Logan", with tears in their eyes for Wolverine.

And now Uncle Wolf has returned and said a gentle farewell to the past.

So the old audience said: They attacked me with the behind-the-scenes footage from 24 years ago.

The movie is Marvel's decent farewell to the Fox Superhero Universe, and it is also the final gift to old audiences. As time goes by, the audiences who shed tears for Wolf Man back then are no longer young.

Many audiences came to the theater not to watch the movie, but to remember their own lost youth behind the countless memes and gorgeous cameo lineup.

And the once invincible Marvel had to say goodbye to its glorious days.

Some people say that the whole movie is just a big Easter egg, but this time, Chinese audiences are no longer as obsessed with waiting for the Easter eggs in "Avengers 3 and 4" as they were back then.

Deadpool and Wolverine may be able to conquer the world again with the remaining power of Marvel, but they will never be able to capture the big doll of the Chinese market.