They may have seemed like strange bedfellows at first, but they managed to enlist the support of Heinz, National Geographic, and TCM for a film whose initial offensive trailer poked fun of pegging.
It would be an understatement to say that Ryan Reynolds and Disney appeared like strange bedfellows when the studio acquired the R-rated Deadpool series when Fox merged.
Reynolds, who juggles acting, marketing, branding, and entrepreneurship, was the driving force behind the bold marketing campaigns for the first two Deadpool movies (just take a look at the viral poop emoji billboard for the first film or Deadpool’s recreation of Burt Reynolds’ classic Cosmopolitan centerfold). Given that Disney doesn’t often release R-rated films, at least not in the present day, how far would it go to push the envelope? And Marvel Studios, its division, never has.
As it turns out, Asad Ayaz of Disney, who serves as the company’s chief branding officer and head of marketing for both the film studio andDisney+, was fully on board. With the support of his own marketing company, Maximum Effort, and Disney’s experience and reach, Reynolds’ marketing acumen and Marvel’s record-breaking Deadpool & Wolverine came together to produce a magical combination that made the film the most earning R-rated picture ever. With an astounding $1.086 billion in global earnings as of August 18, its rise is far from done.
Reynolds tells The Hollywood Reporter, “To me, the biggest challenge was avoiding the more R-rated marketing instincts of Deadpool.” Rather of focusing on a particular comedy, action, or superhero genre, the marketing was supposed to seem like it was for the whole audience. Heinz, Dave & Busters, NatGeo, TCM, and Bachelorette were among the partnerships that conveyed our desire to reach a wide audience, but so did our writing style, which was lighthearted but not offensive.
“The R rating actually worked in our favor because it helped differentiate the movie,” says marketing whiz Ayaz. The difficulty was in reaching as many people as possible, particularly those who might not have watched a Deadpool film, a Marvel film, or a Marvel film in a long time. Marvel currently has a sizable and diverse fan base, and this long-awaited collaboration was crucial in helping us get there.
Except Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Reynolds said that the first two movies had virtually no partners. Ayaz’s partnerships team, in close collaboration with Reynolds, Levy, and Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige, developed a list of important partners early in the Deadpool & Wolverine filming process. Even though we didn’t get everyone on our list, we still added people we hadn’t planned on getting. Reynolds explains, “Even though the movie wasn’t exactly ‘ safe,’ we were always shooting for four-quadrant coverage, which is rare for an R-rated picture.
For an R-rated movie whose initial trailer discussed “pegging,” the no-holds-barred marketing was unmatched in scope (blush). Disney and Maximum Effort were able to collaborate with some of the most well-known media franchises and brands in the world, such as Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Orange County and ABC’s The Bachelorette. The world’s largest social media following, National Geographic, has also joined the Deadpool bandwagon with an upcoming nature documentary series called Underdogs, narrated by Ryan Reynolds. One of the series’ episodes will center on a real-life Wolverine. Disney owns both ABC and Nat Geo.)
Additionally, he planned a Turner Classic Movies movie night. (He selected Cars, Trains, and Planes, as well as Grosse Pointe Blank.) Additionally, Deadpool & Wolverine’s Leslie Uggams was present at a dog screening that was emceed by Peggy, the dog that portrayed Dogpool and attended by over twenty of the biggest dog influencers on social media. Disney’s official charitable partner, Best Friends Animal Society, ran a PSA promoting pet adoptions in print and broadcast media using contributions.
Additionally, in the weeks preceding the movie’s release in the second half of June, Reynolds, Hugh Jackman—who plays Wolverine again—and director Shawn Levy set out on an intense international publicity tour that visited ten cities on four continents, including China, a country to which Marvel hasn’t sent any talent since Avengers: Endgame in 2019. Reynolds and Jackman also made history by being the first well-known Hollywood actors to visit the Waterbomb event, the biggest music event in Korea. Other highlights: Deadpool stormed the field at the end of the UEFA EURO 2024 quarterfinal match that the three attended.
These were among of the largest brand agreements for any MCU title in terms of quantity, with donations totaling $135 million. This is on top of Disney spending the usual $100 million or more on marketing for a summer tentpole. Maximum Effort ran point on a few of the brand alliances, such as a significant initiative with Heineken that featured appearances by Deadpool and Wolverine and a cooperation with Adidas on a unique shoe line.
Heinz, which seldom collaborates with Hollywood, may have struck it lucky in terms of brand partners. In this instance, the distinctive red and yellow outfits of Deadpool and Wolverine went well with ketchup and mustard, respectively. According to Ayaz, “it got us into the cultural zeitgeist in a pretty great way.”
Ayaz thinks it funny because in an Old Spice commercial, Blind Al (Uggams) claims that the fragrance “fights stank 24/7,” alluding to her roommate Deadpool. Another is an Xbox collaboration that produced a gaming system using a controller like Deadpool’s behind. (Ayaz’s group is undoubtedly enjoying their summer as a whole, what with Inside Out 2, The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, and now Alien: Romulus.)
While Jackman’s casting in the third Deadpool film was confirmed in September 2022, Wolverine’s persona was only shown in a 2024 Super Bowl commercial (a flash of yellow shown instead). Reynolds said it was a painful choice to not reveal Wolverine. “I’m happy we held off on revealing Hugh in the Super Bowl teaser. That initial impression is never taken back, and it aroused more expectation than any of us could have imagined. Reynolds says, “I’m delighted that everyone on the team understands the Jaws lesson: What you don’t see is more provocative.
The official title was revealed in the trailer, which debuted on February 11 and had a record 365 million views on its first day of release. Disney, however, included the Super Bowl telecast ratings in that calculation even though the entire teaser was not shown during the broadcast.
The movie’s personalized popcorn bucket lived up to Reynolds and Feige’s promise to be just as obscene and vulgar as the Dune sandstorm popcorn bucket, and it didn’t let fans down by subtly suggesting some form of oral sex. Disney claims that there was an increase in presales on the day the buckets were on sale, and they sold out practically instantly. After that, there was a hilarious bleeped PSA in theaters with actors Jackman and Reynold’s characters urging people to put down their phones, or perhaps
Maximum Effort’s George Dewey claims that “Disney’s marketing team was shockingly supportive, given the very R-rated history of Deadpool.” He believes that given that Marvel and Disney had initially approved of so many of the crude and irreverent gags in the movie, he shouldn’t have been shocked by Ayaz’s team’s readiness to exercise its marketing muscle. All they wanted to do was go there. Deadpool referred to himself as Marvel Jesus in the initial teaser, after all. (Marvel had gone through a difficult period before Deadpool & Wolverine breaking box office records.)
Working with Disney provides a lot of advantages, according to Dewey, who was involved in the original Deadpool film while at 20th Century Fox: “Disney always broadens things.” The Disney world has taken a shine to this figure.
Reynolds shared a scene from Deadpool & Wolverine wherein his character says, “Fuck Fox, I’m going to Disneyland,” in a social media post on August 15th, revealing that the movie has surpassed Joker to become the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time. Perhaps there isn’t a better way to encapsulate what many would have found unimaginable only a few short years ago: a world in which the most kid-friendly studio in Hollywood warmly embraces the most foul-mouthed and R-rated antihero in Hollywood.
