'Deadpool & Wolverine' Breaks Box Office Records, Robert Downey Jr. Returns as Doctor Doom

Marvel's 'Deadpool & Wolverine' achieves a record-breaking domestic box office opening with $205 million. Major video game publishers are expected to weather the strike by voice actors. Josh Hartnett tackles a complex role in 'Trap', and Robert Downey Jr. returns to Marvel as Doctor Doom.

Marvel's raunchy and violent "Deadpool & Wolverine" lit up box offices over the weekend with $205 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales, the biggest domestic opening of the year, distributor Walt Disney said on Sunday. The returns set a record for an R-rated film and topped the $154.2 million collected by another Disney film, the animated Pixar movie "Inside Out 2," when it debuted in June.

Major video game publishers including Electronic Arts and Take-Two will likely stave off a big hit from the strike by voice actors and motion-capture artists due to their in-house studios and the lengthy development cycles for games, analysts said. The strike, which began last week, marked the latest in Hollywood after unions representing writers and actors took to the picket lines last year seeking protections against the use of artificial intelligence.

Josh Hartnett says his role as a shrewd serial killer in filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan's new movie "Trap" marks a departure for him as an actor. "It's unlike anything else I've played," Hartnett, who has starred in films such as "Black Hawk Down", "Lucky Number Slevin", "Pearl Harbor" and "The Virgin Suicides", said at the London premiere of "Trap" on Monday.

Robert Downey Jr. stunned fans as he removed a mask during Saturday's San Diego Comic-Con Hall H panel, revealing that the "Iron Man" actor will rejoin the franchise as one of Marvel's biggest villains named Doctor Doom. The panel was flooded with hooded figures concealed by masks that resembled the iconic comic book villain known for his skills in both sorcery and science when Downey Jr. revealed himself.

(With inputs from agencies.)