Ryan Reynolds Delivers Signature Deadpool Humor as ‘The Odyssey’ Steals His Box Office Crown
Losing a box office record isn’t usually cause for celebration, but then again, few actors handle a loss quite like Ryan Reynolds. The star has built an entire public persona around turning setbacks into punchlines, and his latest social media moment proves that instinct hasn’t dulled one bit.
That reputation traces back years, long before this particular record was even on the line. Reynolds has a well-documented history of publicly congratulating whichever film knocks his own movies off the box office throne, treating each dethroning as an opportunity for comedy rather than a bruised ego.
This time, the film doing the dethroning is Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey,’ which officially surpassed ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ to become the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time. Reynolds marked the occasion with a 36-second video posted to both Instagram and X, blending footage from both films into a tongue-in-cheek tribute.
His caption leaned fully into the bit. “Congratulations to the entire cast and crew of The Odyssey for becoming the highest grossing R-rated movie of all time,” Reynolds wrote, before adding the punchline, “That is one helluva car.”
That closing joke is a callback to the Honda Odyssey minivan that plays a memorable role in ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ where Deadpool insists the vehicle is “not a car” moments before he and Wolverine tear each other apart inside it. Reynolds has kept that particular gag running since ‘Deadpool 2,’ making this latest reference feel like a natural extension of a bit he’s clearly enjoyed revisiting.
The numbers behind the record swap tell their own story about how differently these two films built their totals. ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ leaned heavily on domestic audiences, pulling roughly 47.6% of its haul from within the United States, while ‘The Odyssey’ flipped that formula entirely, with about 60.6% of its gross coming from international markets.
Budget efficiency also separates the two projects considerably. Universal produced ‘The Odyssey’ for a reported $250 million, a modest figure compared to the $537 million Disney reportedly spent on production and marketing combined for ‘Deadpool & Wolverine.’ That gap makes Nolan’s box office achievement all the more notable given how much less the studio put on the line.
Nolan’s epic hasn’t just claimed the R-rated crown either. The film has already become the biggest of the director’s career, surpassing ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ and its previous benchmark of $1.08 billion worldwide, cementing ‘The Odyssey’ as a genuine career milestone for one of Hollywood’s most consistently bankable filmmakers.
There’s still runway left for the film to keep climbing, too. China opened for ‘The Odyssey’ on August 14 across more than 20,000 screens, and Japan won’t even see the film until it opens on September 11, meaning the final gap between these two records could widen considerably before all is said and done.
For fans of the ‘Deadpool’ franchise, Reynolds’ gracious exit has already sparked chatter about what comes next, with some hoping a fourth installment might eventually take another swing at reclaiming the record. Whether or not that happens, Reynolds’ reaction has reinforced exactly why audiences enjoy following his career, box office record or not.
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