Irreverent wit and high-flying action proved the keys to success for Fox's Deadpool, which ruled the box office this weekend both at home and abroad. Star Ryan Reynolds, who lobbied the studio to make the movie his way, with a hard R-rating and all of the foulmouthed humor that has won the Marvel anti-hero legions of loyal fans, led the film to a shocking $150 million over the Friday – Monday Valentine's and President's day weekend at the domestic box office.

The story of Wade Wilson, a fast-talking soldier of fortune nicknamed the Merc With the Mouth, who becomes Deadpool after an experimental cancer cure grants him superhuman strength, reflexes, and healing abilities, proved to hit all the right notes. It caught analysts and even Fox's own distribution executives completely by surprise, – box office watchers and the studio had predicted an open run of between $60 and $75 million. But after a wholly unexpected $47.5 million Friday showing (the biggest single-day ever for the month of February) they started to change their tune. A carefully orchestrated ad campaign brought the picture more attention than a $58 million movie typically stirs up. With elements in its marketing strategy that were at times as odd as the film's title character, like emoji based billboards and Deadpool look-alike contests hosted by Ryan Reynolds, Fox's publicity team hit the nail on the head. Fandango reported on Sunday that it had recorded the greatest amount of February pre-sale tickets. It had an A Cinema score with 92 percent of polled viewers saying they would recommend the film, which it would seem many of them did.

All of this led to a number of records for Fox's first surprise hit of the year. It blew past The Matrix Reloaded's 2003 benchmark for an R-rated opening ($91.3 million.) It also recorded the second biggest day for February with its $42.6 million Saturday, and beat Fifty Shades of Grey's $91 million opening last year to claim the biggest President's Day weekend of all time. If that wasn't enough, it marked the largest opening for a first time feature director in history, a feat that most likely will see Tim Miller become a mainstay of big-budget pictures for years to come.

Overseas it enjoyed similarly astounding success. Deadpool's hype machine moved across the Atlantic and into Latin America with ease. In the UK it scored the biggest opening day for a 15-rated movie with $3.4 million on its opening there last Wednesday and went on to earn $20.1 million in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It made $10.1 million in Australia, the biggest February opening ever Down Under, and beat Star Wars: The Force Awakens' all-time record Russian opening with a $12.3 million debut. In France it made $8.67 million, good for the second biggest opening of all time in that country, and it took first place in Germany with $7.1 million. It became the second highest opening R-rated film in the history of Brazil with $5.85 million, just losing out to last year's Fifty Shades of Grey. Deadpool's total international take sits at $125 million as per current Comscore tracking, and its global cumulative is already at $275 million.

The next biggest success of the weekend was Chinese phenomenon The Mermaid. This picture, from director Stephen Chow, tells the story of a mermaid who hatches a plot to seduce a billionaire developer with plans to turn a dolphin preserve into an industrial park and instead ends up falling in love and changing the heart of the would-be villain. It made $106 million in 7 territories, including $3.8 million in Malaysia and $1 million in Vietnam. The rest of its gross came from mainland China, and made up the bulk of the picture's current $260 million global cume.

While Fox is rejoicing at their runaway success this frame, the conversation has a completely different tone over at Paramount. Zoolander 2, a follow up to the 2001 cult hit starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, saw the pair of dim male models called upon to save the world once again, this time landing them in the midst of a sinister fashion week in Rome. Star power and brand recognition weren't enough to save this picture as it made just $15.6 million at home and $8.5 million abroad for a lackluster global debut of $24.1 million against a reported budget of $50 million.

Next weekend we'll see if Deadpool lands a killing blow, and follow the release of Stephen James' Jesse Owens story Race, Sundance horror darling The Witch, and Joseph Fienne's biblical costume drama Risen.