Deadpool

Deadpool is a 2016 American superhero film directed by Tim Miller and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, based on the Marvel Comics character Deadpool. It is the eighth installment in the X-Men film series, and stars Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein, Gina Carano, T.J. Miller, Leslie Uggams and Brianna Hildebrand. In Deadpool, Wade Wilson hunts the man who nearly destroyed his life.

Development began in February 2004 with New Line Cinema, but put the film in turnaround in March 2005, with 20th Century Fox buying the rights. In May 2009, after Reynolds portrayed the character in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Fox lent the film to writers, and Miller was hired for his directorial debut in April 2011. Enthusiastic acclaim from leaked CGI test footage by Miller in July 2014 led to Fox green lighting the film in September. Additional casting began in early 2015, and principal photography commenced in Vancouver from March to May.

Deadpool premiered in Paris on February 8, 2016, and was released on February 12 in the United States in IMAX, DLP, D-Box and premium large format. The film was a massive blockbuster success, grossing over &782 million worldwide and breaking numerous box office records, including becoming  the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2016, the highest-grossing R-rated film and X-Men film of all time, and received generally positive reviews. Shortly after its success, a sequel was green lit by fox.

Marketing

In July 2015, director Miller and several cast members attended the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con to present the trailer of the film, which received a standing ovation from attendees who requested that it be played again. Graeme McMillan of the Hollywood Reporter opined that Deadpool "looks like the first movies that talks to the fan audience in their own language", and praised the meta humor of the trailer, while Business Insider's Joshua Rivera gave the trailer a positive review for being "failthful to the source material", as well as for its humor and action.

In December 2015, Fox launched a viral marketing campaign titled "The 12 days of Deadpool", which consisted of one website posting new info about the film each day, with the culmination of a new trailer released on Christmas Day. The general marketing campaign for the film has garnered a positive reaction in the media, two particular items noted as effective were a campaingn to feign Deadpool as a Valentine's Day romance film, and a billboard only containing the emoji which jounalists called "dumb, yet hilarious".

On January 19, 2016, two supposed screenings of yet unseen footage in New York and Lost Angeles turned out to be surprise screenings of the entire film. Screen Rant noted that fan reactions to the film were "overwhelmingly positive".

Reynolds promoted the film's DVD release with a guest appearance on the YouTube channel Screen Junkies, which makes "Honest Trailers" of films, costumed and characterized as Deadpool. THe newspaper The Guardian described it as "Deadpool cheerfully pop up to offer wisecrackiing commentary on Honest Trailer's wisecracking commentary...on his own wisecracking commentary in the movie itself". Reynolds commented hat he is a fan of the web series, and that the custom credits at the beginning of the film were taken from a similar section of those videos.