Marvel’s upcoming movie, Deadpool & Wolverine, is projected to set a new record for an R-rated movie’s opening weekend, according to Deadline. Early box office tracking suggests an opening between $200M and $239M, with monitoring service The Quorum indicating that these estimates might actually be conservative. However, shares of media giant Disney (NYSE:DIS), Marvel’s parent company, were slightly down in today’s trading.
Still, it’s worth noting that if these projections hold true, Deadpool & Wolverine would surpass previous R-rated openings by a large margin. In fact, the first Deadpool film earned $132.4M in its 2016 opening weekend, while Deadpool 2 brought in $125.5M in 2018.
Other top R-rated openings include It at $123M, Joker at $96M, and The Matrix Reloaded at $91M. If Deadpool & Wolverine reaches $1B at the box office, it will be the first Marvel movie to do so since Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021.
Is Disney a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on DIS stock based on 20 Buys, five Holds, and zero Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 7.7% rally in its share price over the past year, the average DIS price target of $129.38 per share implies 29.47% upside potential.
