A new analysis by The Hollywood Reporter of Deadpool & Wolverine’s unprecedented four-quadrant marketing campaign revealed that the superhero tentpole received more money from brand partnerships than most other MCU titles.
Through its partnerships with a varied number of brands—everyone from Audi to Heinz to NatGeo—Deadpool & Wolverine received an astonishing $135 million in brand partnerships.
According to numbers provided by Deadline, that would put Shawn Levy’s multiverse extravaganza fourth on the list of Marvel’s most expensive promotional campaigns. Predictably, the top spot goes to Avengers: Endgame, which had a publicity campaign worth around $200 million. In second place is Avengers: Infinity War ($150 million), followed by Spider-Man: Homecoming ($140 million).
Deadpool & Wolverine’s accomplishment is especially noteworthy because the first two Deadpool movies had few brand partnerships outside of Mike’s Hard Lemonade. Ryan Reynolds told THR that gathering partners for the latest installment was simple once they agreed upon the tone they’d use to market the super-crude, uber-violent R-rated movie.
“To me, the biggest challenge was avoiding the more R-rated marketing instincts of Deadpool,” Reynolds said of his character. “The marketing was meant to feel all-audience as opposed to leaning into a specific comedy, action, or superhero genre,” he explained. “The selection of collaborations sent a message about how broad we wanted to go—Heinz, Dave & Buster's, NatGeo, TCM, and Bachelorette—but so did the way we wrote them, which was playful but not third rail.”
Reynolds admitted that “we didn’t get everyone on our list” of preferred sponsors, “but we got enough and then added others we weren’t expecting,” he said. “It is unusual for an R-rated film, but we were always aiming for four-quadrant coverage — even though the film wasn’t exactly ‘safe.’”
Deadpool & Wolverine continues to break financial records of all sorts. Last week, it barrelled past Joker to become the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time worldwide.
