One reason audiences love superheroes is because they can do impossible things. Until 1998, it seemed impossible for a single movie to earn $1 billion at the box office. In the age of superhero cinema, that’s something that’s starting to look easy to do. However, for Henry Cavill, the pursuit of a $1 billion box office hit eluded him for 11 years, until his less-than-30-second cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine.
Since the pandemic, the rock-solid pop culture dominance of superhero films seems to have eroded in significant ways. While the theatrical release of Justice League, featuring the resurrection of Cavill’s Superman, is not fondly regarded by fans or critics, it still earned $661 million. (Though with a $300 million budget, that’s barely breaking even.) With Deadpool & Wolverine, Marvel represents nearly a dozen of the films that have hit that billion-dollar benchmark. DC Comics’ films aren’t excluded from the club, either, though they appear much less frequently. Playing Superman is a lifelong feather in an actor’s cap, but for Henry Cavill, the billion-dollar milestone eluded him, even in massive franchises unrelated to comics like Mission: Impossible. Perhaps the best part of Deadpool & Wolverine breaking Cavill’s curse is how it makes the meta-joke in the film even funnier.
Deadpool & Wolverine Is Only the 55th Movie to Make $1 Billion
The first film to clear the $1 billion box office benchmark was 1998’s Titanic, and it reached $2 billion with its 2012 re-release. It’s a strategy director James Cameron used again when he rereleased Avatar to beat Avengers Endgame‘s record take. Still, in the slightly more than 25 years since Titanic crashed into that particular earnings ceiling, only 54 other films have crossed a billion dollars at the box office since. Deadpool & Wolverine is the most recent member of a still fairly exclusive club.
“Disney’s Marvel sequel, starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman as their comic book alter egos, has grossed $494.3 million in North America and $535.1 million internationally for a grand total of $1.029 billion at the global box office,” Variety reported, though final numbers won’t be known until Monday. This is Disney’s second billion-dollar movie after the record-breaking success of Inside Out 2, which is still in some theaters and earned more than $1.5 billion. Also, Deadpool & Wolverine will likely over taker 2019’s Joker as the highest-grossing R-rated movie, so long as it earns another measly $500 million.
If actor Henry Cavill cares in any way about hitting the billion-dollar benchmark, the Deadpool & Wolverine news is likely bittersweet. Technically, even talking about him being in the film is a spoiler. Audiences aren’t showing up for his roughly 20-second cameo as “the Cavillrine” (the legends are true). In fairness, they aren’t really showing up for Ryan Reynolds’s Deadpool either. No, it’s the return of Hugh Jackman in his 25th year as Wolverine, finally in the comics’ accurate costumes, complete with white-eyed mask. Henry Cavill’s role is merely a garnish on a film packed with familiar faces.
Is the Billion-Dollar Benchmark Important to Henry Cavill’s Superman Legacy?
Every actor who played Superman in live-action earns a level of immortality, for example, Kirk Alyn, the first man to don the red-and-blue tights (in black and white). Yet, playing Superman doesn’t necessarily result in the kind of blockbuster career actors hope for. People who’ve played Superman don’t necessarily go on to make more movies, instead acting on television, hosting podcasts, and, rarely, becoming an oft-mocked political commentator. The film industry can be a cruel and foolish business, so if Henry Cavill starred in the first billion-dollar Superman film? It wouldn’t have hurt.
Henry Cavill was a truly excellent Superman, who delivered exactly the kind of Kal-El he was supposed to. Director Zach Snyder’s vision of the character, especially Clark Kent, was different than what fans expected and part of a much longer arc that was never realized. Because of shifting management and fear of Marvel Studios, the studio didn’t commit to their big-screen shared universe. Only DC’s Aquaman joined the billion-dollar club, alongside Christopher Nolan’s Batman and Todd Phillips’s Joker.
Of course, this elusive goal isn’t really that important for Henry Cavill’s career, and Deadpool & Wolverine earning $1 billion won’t hurt it, but it may not help, either. Cavill, however, may not need help. From Mission: Impossible Fallout to The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Cavill is still playing interesting characters prone to blockbuster action. In The Witcher, he was the rare point of agreement amongst a fanbase at odds about the series’ quality. He’s also set to lead the reboot of the Highlander film series. And, he will bring Warhammer 40,000 (unless the deal falls through) to a wider audience at Amazon.
