After shocking the world with a multi-record breaking release last week Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool hit another home-run, closing its second frame with $235 million at the domestic box office. It beat newcomers The Witch, Risen, and the Jesse Owens biopic Race to once again claim number one on the North American chart with a $55 million weekend. Analysts and even Fox's own distribution execs are still scratching their heads over how this raunchy $60 million dollar superhero comedy has become such a wild success. Marketing a film is a bit like raising a child, where everything from buying baby's first crib to dropping it off for the first day at school is a calculated gamble and there's no telling whether the newborn will spend its 18^th birthday at Harvard or in County Jail. In this case Fox's decisively alternative parenting and Ryan Reynolds' coddling have created a monster that the world can't get enough of. Videos of the film's star doing outlandish things like teaching fans how to check themselves for breast cancer, giving Conan O'Brien a Swedish massage on-air (which on its own garnered 3.5 million views on YouTube,) and a cheesy Christmas-themed cross promotion with the NBA gave this movie enough social hype to catapult a relatively unknown comic book character into the center of the public imagination.

A repeat number one overseas performance worth $85 million in 74 markets brings Deadpool  to an international cumulative of $256.3 million and takes the film to a  global cume of $491 million. After just two weeks, it’s already expected to beat The Matrix: Reloaded's worldwide R-rated benchmark of $742.1. Highlights this frame came from South Korea, where it made $12 million and set a record for 18+ releases. The film also finished on top in Spain ($4.1 million), Italy (3.2 million),  and the UAE ($1.7 million,) earning still more R-rated debut records in those countries. Another $7.9 million brings its total in the UK to $39.6 million, while it reached $18.9 million in Australia and $16.8 million on France.

Also on the international scene newcomer Zootopia grossed  $31.2 million in 22 territories, well before its March 4 US debut. It made $9.2 million in France, the biggest ever opening for a Disney/Pixar film, and repeated the feat in Poland with a $1.2 million opening. Having reached a cumulative total of $39 million in two weeks and in just over a third of its planned markets, Disney's latest animated entry already looks set to be a blockbuster.

Holdover The Mermaid, a Chinese box office phenomenon from China Film Group made $57 million in its third weekend, reaching a global cumulative of $420 million. Surprisingly, one of those millions came from the US, where the film set a very solid 29k location average and earned a domestic record for a Chinese movie. Ticket sales in the Middle Kingdom hit $6.7 billion last year, up 50% from 2014 and this January was already 47% percent ahead of 2015's. With Chinese pictures making of 71% of those figures and increasing collaboration with American studios, its only a matter of time before the Chinese film industry produces a truly global hit, a feat that it hasn't managed since 2000 with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Speaking of which, the Oscar winning martial arts epic's sequel, The Sword of Destiny, opened second in its home market with $21 million, and will have a day-and-date release in US theaters and on Netflix on February 26.

Back on the domestic front, Jesse Owens’ biopic didn't take off nearly as fast as the man who inspired the film. Stephen Hopkins' Race earned an A Cinemascore but came in a low 6^th with $7.3 million.

Next week we will see if Lionsgate’s and Thunder Road's Gods of Egypt can unseat Deadpool, and follow the release of crime thriller Triple 9 and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Sword of Destiny.