• David Leitch, the director of "Deadpool 2," explains why he took on the movie following the exit of the first movie's director, Tim Miller.
• Leitch also explains the pressures of working on a big studio movie that has a set release date in place before production even begins.
• He also tells us why doing multiple test screenings made "Deadpool 2" better.

David Leitch has proved to be one of the top filmmakers in the action-movie genre with only two movies under his belt — but they certainly left an impression.

After building one of the most respected stuntman crews in Hollywood with Chad Stahelski in the early 2000s (they were called on to do all the big action movies like "The Bourne Legacy" and the "Expendables" movies), the two made their directorial debut with the surprise hit "John Wick" starring Keanu Reeves in 2014. It proved that they could do more than just come up with innovative fight sequences. Leitch then went on his own to make "Atomic Blonde" last year (Stahelski made "John Wick 2") and proved it wasn't a fluke. He could really direct. His stylized Cold War ultraviolent tale starring Charlize Theron wowed audiences.

Now he's hit the big time, having signed on to direct "Deadpool 2" (in theaters Friday) after the first movie's director, Tim Miller, exited the project. The sequel doesn't just deliver on bigger fights and jokes. With Leitch at the helm (and most likely a little more budget than the first one), and with Ryan Reynolds reprising the outlandish Marvel superhero, the movie feels bigger and more slick.

But Leitch isn't letting up. He's now prepping his next movie, "Hobbs and Shaw" starring Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham, the first spin-off project from the "Fast and Furious" franchise.

Leitch sat down with Business Insider to talk about the pressures of jumping in a franchise like "Deadpool," how the looming predetermined movie release date brought lots of anxiety, and why test screenings really helped the movie.

Jason Guerrasio: Was getting on "Deadpool 2" similar to what you did with "Atomic Blonde" where you showed Charlize a kind of sizzle reel of your vision of the movie?

David Leitch: It was a completely different experience. I was actually working on "X-Force" with Ryan and Simon Kinberg, for a very short window of time. I had gotten the gig to develop it and I had just started working in that world, and then when this opportunity came up for "Deadpool"— "We're going to be doing 'Deadpool 2' first, would you be interested in directing?"— I was like [does a big exhale]. It was more an offer because we had a relationship.

It was a daunting decision to make because what I liked about the idea of "X-Force" was that I would be able to break new ground and create my own world. Here you have this franchise that's a global phenomenon and how are you going to meet the expectations of that? But because there's an element of "X-Force," really the introduction of these characters in this world, I sort of got to have my cake and eat it too, I guess. I felt there was enough room in the creative palette of what "Deadpool" can be for me to have an impact as a director but also stay true to what people love from the original.

Guerrasio: And I'm assuming there was something on page already, so you could have some vision of where they wanted to go with the sequel when you came on?

Leitch: Well, no. [Laughs.] It was more of a pitch. They had gone down the road of trying to crack the story of what we wanted to do for number two, and when I came on board they were sort of piecing things together from those ideas. So I was loosely involved in the beginning of that process as I was coming on board. We put the movie out in note cards, as you do, and they went away and wrote it as I started to prep. We had a short time. We knew we were shooting in Vancouver, so we were scouting locations as the pages were coming in.

Guerrasio: So because of the speed this was very different from doing "John Wick" or "Atomic Blonde."

Leitch: It is. It's because of that release date. The release-date pressure.

Guerrasio: It's hanging over everyone's head.

Leitch: It's hanging in the air and every week you push principal photography it gives you less days on post. And on these big visual-effects movies, post is key. It's really hard with these release-date schedules.

Guerrasio: And with this movie in particular, because your main character is wearing a mask, post is crucial because if you guys think of a better line or joke, you can place it in with very little extra work.

Leitch: You want to allow for that process to take place. You need a window of creativity in post that you may not have in another movie. You have the luxury of putting words in the mask: making a joke more current, or work better, or help the narrative with a couple of lines. You want to maximize that.

Guerrasio: Were you aware of that need in post going into the project?

Leitch: I was pretty aware of it. I had never done it before, but talking to Ryan and his experience on the last film and understanding how post works, it's a great tool. But we needed time to experiment. And test jokes. We needed some sort of development period where we're not under the pressure of the release date.

Guerrasio: Did you test this movie with audiences a lot?

Leitch: Yeah. And I'm grateful we did. We were testing really high. We were testing in the 90s in our first test screening. It was crazy. On an independent film you get that score you pack up shop and polish the color and sound and ship the movie. But because we had the resources of the studio and we had gotten our first test out early we felt we could improve on this. We did test a couple of more times and we refined jokes and we trimmed scenes, and it was definitely progressive. Our scores were increasing all the way to the last one where we had this insane score. But it was all due to this refinement process in post.

Guerrasio: And not every movie can be pulled off this way.

Leitch: Well, you have some help with the character being in a mask.

Guerrasio: You can put in anything and it's going to match.

Leitch: Yeah. It helps.

Guerrasio: Compare Ryan to working with Keanu and Charlize.

Leitch: They are in the position they are in the world because there's a work ethic and a level of professionalism and then there's a talent. So those three things are the mix that makes them who they are. I had close collaborations with Keanu on "John Wick" in the beginning process. A lot in the script and who he is as a character, and then once he connected with the character and found his emotional way in then he let Chad and myself, the filmmakers, go and do what we had to do. Charlize was a producer on "Atomic" so she had a lot of say in the beginning as well, but once I gave her the pitch of making it a punk noir music mashup she got really excited, and once she found the character and trusted the vision she's all business. Ryan is a different process because he's a producer, writer, performance artist —

Guerrasio: Keeper of the Deadpool flame.

Leitch: Yeah. Head of marketing, not really, but you know what I mean. He's essential in marketing. So there's a big brand that he's shepherding so it was a little different process but it was really collaborative and really supportive. He was really supportive of me as a filmmaker to the studio. He wanted this to be a David Leitch film. It was a great experience.

Guerrasio: You've been working nonstop. Have you had a moment to take a breath and take in everything you've done in the past few years? Not just the movies, but the level of difficulty and scope in such a short time.

Leitch: I haven't. My close collaborator since "Atomic" has been my wife, Kelly McCormick, and we were kind of looking at each other last night and were like, "Are we ever going to take a break?" And we do find joy in the process. But, in my below-the-line career I didn't take breaks.

Guerrasio: But I hope you're doing things now that are more financially satisfying than when you were doing stunt work.

Leitch: [Laughs.] Granted, this is a Champagne problem. But it's just that the material has spoken to us and we see a path in. That's so rare that I want to grab it. I know we're now jumping into "Hobbs and Shaw" really quickly, but I'm not daunted by it.

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Warning: There are major spoilers below for "Deadpool 2."

"Deadpool 2" has a few surprise cameos, but its biggest surprise came about halfway through the movie when it brought back an old "X-Men" character we didn't expect to see again.

This is your last chance to head back before spoilers.

When Deadpool and Russell are sent to a prison in Canada for mutants, they hear that there's one special mutant hidden away because he's too dangerous.   

Deadpool eventually escapes the prison, but goes to save Russell while in transit to another safe holding. Naturally, Russell isn't the only mutant stowed away on board a massive cargo truck. When the truck eventually crashes, Russell breaks free, but so does the mysterious mutant we were warned about earlier in the movie. 

Out steps a very large man with a cement block on his head who fans will recognize as the Juggernaut.

Who is Juggernaut?

If you were among the people in the theater cheering in excitement when Juggernaut appeared on the screen, it was probably because X-Men fans thought we may never see him again on screen.

Cain Marko appeared once before on screen, in 2006's "X-Men: The Last Stand." He was a member of Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants. You probably remember him for reciting the line, "I'm the Juggernaut, b--ch!" after getting trapped momentarily in the floor by Kitty Pryde.

Juggernaut's main power is superhuman strength and speed. How strong is he? He could run through buildings without any problem or getting tired. He was first introduced in 1965's X-Men #12 as Charles Xavier/Professor X's bullying stepbrother.

In some of the comics, he also had some mystical powers, but movie adaptations have stuck to playing off his immense strength.

Will we see Juggernaut again?

It's definitely possible. He is Charles Xavier's stepbrother after all and he's one of the most important mutants.

At the end of "Deadpool 2," Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead leave Juggernaut at the remains of the Essex House as he's still being electrocuted. 

It will take a lot more than that to do Juggernaut in. Since the group doesn't leave him dead, he's now on the loose out in the "X-Men" universe somewhere. 

You can follow along with our "Deadpool 2" coverage here. 

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Warning: There are spoilers ahead for "Deadpool 2."

If you head out to theaters to see "Deadpool 2," don't leave the minute the credits start rolling. 

You'll miss not one, but two fun scenes. 

You absolutely won't want to leave theaters after the first bonus scene. The second credits' scene is probably the best one that's ever been in a superhero movie.

The scenes are pretty straight forward, but in case you ducked out early or were a bit confused, we have you covered.

This is your last chance to head back before spoilers.

The first end-credit scene

What happens

We're back at the X-Men mansion with Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) and her girlfriend Surge (Shioli Kutsuna). They're trying to fix Cable's device which allows him to travel through time. 

He tells Deadpool earlier in the film he conveniently only has enough power to use the device twice — once to travel to the past and once more to return home. However, once he uses it at the film's end to save Deadpool, he's stuck at that point in time.

He doesn't seem too worried about sticking around for a while longer. 

Deadpool walks in on Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Surge just as they put the finishing touches on the device. Deadpool, ever the pal, asks to take the fixed device to Cable. The two oblige before realizing they probably made a mistake.

"What have we done?" asks Warhead before the scene ends.

What it means

We'll get to the second end-credits scene in a moment, which shows the immediate effect of Deadpool taking the time-traveling device. But the introduction of Cable's tech invites a lot of exciting opportunities for future movies and storylines. 

For one thing, Cable could head back to the future at some point to be back with his family. But like he said, he's in no rush to head home. (Sorry Cable's wife and kid. He seems to like Deadpool a lot.)

In the meantime, if the device is to get used, we could see Cable travel through time with Deadpool and the other members of the X-Force, especially if they're needed to help save the world — or the main "X-Men" cast from trouble. Or we could just see them traveling through time in their own self-contained stories. That idea is similar to what DC's "Legends of Tomorrow" currently does on the CW. The show features a ragtag group of heroes and past villains from other shows traveling through time to save the world. Twentieth Century Fox may want to go for something more original. 

If Hugh Jackman was game, the group could even travel back in time and stop Wolverine from dying. Since Deadpool seems to be a massive fan of the character, it doesn't seem like the most absurd idea, even if he was resurrected just for one movie. (But that's just a lot of us hoping to see Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman together for more than a "Deadpool" movie promo.)

Either way, the possibilities seem endless with the introduction of a time travel.

The second end-credits scene

What happens

This is where things get fun. Instead of wondering, we get to see Deadpool use the time travel device in four different sequences. Each one is better than the last. 

The first scene shows Wade Wilson go back in time to the start of "Deadpool 2" where he saves his girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin). He tells her that they're definitely naming their child Cher.

He then returns to the scene where his newly-assembled X-Force team gets axed. Instead of saving every character who died earlier in the film, including Brad Pitt's blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo, he saves Rob Delaney's powerless character Peter. (Deadpool really has a soft spot for him.)

Things then get ludicrous.

The film flashes back to 2009's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" movie. We see a scene play out that was in the original film. Jackman asks Wade if that's him and notes that Stryker — the man who turned them both into mutants — finally found a way to shut him up. We then see Reynolds as the version of Wade Wilson that appeared in the film. His mouth is sewn shut and there are weird marks all over his body. He's not wearing the Deadpool suit. It's a far cry from the Wade we know on screen today.

Before he can respond, Deadpool pops up and kills the character before anything is able to happen. Deadpool says he's just "cleaning up the timelines." He does so to Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time."

We then see actor Ryan Reynolds excitedly looking over a script he just received. The camera pans to show he's looking at a script for Warner Bros.' 2011 "Green Lantern" movie. Before anything else can happen, Deadpool steps in and shoots Reynolds dead.

What it means:

Most of these are just funny gags with Reynolds finally getting to lay to rest any issues he may have been holding onto about previous roles.

Reynolds originally played a very different version of Deadpool's Wade Wilson in the critically-maligned "Wolverine" movie. The character, who is usually rather chatty, was shown with a sewn up mouth to prevent him from talking, and a skinned head. His swords were fused into his hands to look like two giant claws. Fans were very vocal about how the movie studio butchered the beloved character. 

Two years later, Reynolds starred as a leading man in Warner Bros.' "Green Lantern" movie, which not only was a massive flop, but is notoriously one of the worst superhero movies ever made. Reynolds has said the movie was a victim of Hollywood and that no one seemed to know what the movie was. 

It's not all terrible. The role did allow him to meet his current wife Blake Lively on set. Reynolds has said she's his best friend and helps keep him "sane" when dealing with anxiety.

The first two scenes with Peter and Vanessa are interesting, though.

It's not clear whether or not the scenes will have any lasting impact on the future of the franchise. Is Vanessa alive again and could she possibly appear in future movies? What about Peter, who admittedly has zero superpowers, but was a member of Deadpool's original X-Force team? They're probably staying dead, but it would be a good excuse for either to show up again down the line.  

You can follow along with our "Deadpool 2" coverage here.

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Warning: There are spoilers ahead for "Deadpool 2."

In "Deadpool 2," Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) gathers together his own ragtag group of heroes to save a fellow mutant.

The X-Force, as Deadpool names them, consists of Domino (Zazie Beetz), Bedlam (Terry Crews), Shatterstar (Lewis Tan), Zeitgeist (Bill Skarsgard), and a regular guy named Peter (Rob Delaney). 

These guys:

But that's not it. There's supposedly a guy named Vanisher who also made the team.

The problem? Vanisher's invisible. He conveniently doesn't seem to be big on speaking either. 

Naturally, it seems like Deadpool is pulling the audience's leg when he reveals a photo of the guy to be nothing more than a blank headshot. Surely, this will be the end of this gag.

It's not.

The X-Force team then gathers together to jump out of a plane. It's a scene that's been teased in most of the film's trailers. 

As the team skydives, keep an eye on the sky. You'll peer a tiny parachute floating down to Earth by itself. 

It's a pretty funny sight. 

I'll admit I was chuckling to myself to see the lengths Deadpool was going through to keep up with this gag. But then the cord on the parachute was pulled.

As each of the X-Force members quickly met terrible fates (it was a bit windy out), our attention is turned to the seemingly empty parachute. 

In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it-moment, the chute flies into a wire, electrocuting the Vanisher and bringing him momentarily into focus. 

Not only is he very real, but the Vanisher is none other than Brad Pitt. 

Yes. That Brad Pitt. 

If you weren't sure if it was actually Pitt, the credits confirm it's indeed the "World War Z" actor. 

We've seen the Vanisher before 

Vanisher was actually a character briefly seen in "X-Men: The Last Stand." 

In the comics, the character was actually an X-Force villain and thief.

Why it's interesting to see Pitt in "Deadpool 2"

Pitt was actually in talks to play the movie's antihero, Cable, played by Josh Brolin. 

In March 2017, concept art of Pitt as the character appeared online which matches with the final look of the character. "Deadpool 2" director David Leitch confirmed to ComicBook.com that they had met with Pitt for the movie, but it ultimately didn't work out.

"He was incredibly interested in the property," said Leitch. "Things didn't work out schedule-wise. He's a fan, and we love him, and I think he would've made an amazing Cable."

While Pitt's schedule may have conflicted, it looks like they were able to find just enough time to squeeze in a small cameo.

According to "Deadpool 2" screenwriter Rhett Reese, Ryan Reynolds reached out to Pitt.

"Brad's kids loved the first movie, and so he jumped at the chance. He did it for scale, and a cup of coffee,"Reese told Fandango. "[Pitt] insisted Ryan deliver [the coffee] to him on set, which happened. It was a real treat."

When you think about it, Pitt has never played a superhero. Yes, he did play a character in animated movie, "Megamind," but he has never starred as a Marvel or DC superhero or villain.

A representative for Pitt and Fox didn't immediately respond to INSIDER's request for comment.

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Warning: There are spoilers ahead for "Deadpool 2."

"Deadpool 2" is a worthy followup to 2016's R-rated hit. But by the film's end, you'll be left with at least one big question: When exactly in the "X-Men" universe does this movie take place? 

The movie shows Cable (Josh Brolin) travel back in time from a troubled future to prevent history from taking a dark turn. When he arrives, he instantly asks what year he's in but he never receives an answer.

For the rest of the movie, you're left wondering where "Deadpool 2" fits into the "X-Men" narrative. 

So when does "Deadpool 2" take place?

We'll walk through the possibilities. But honestly, it probably doesn't even matter when"Deadpool 2," or any "Deadpool" movie for that case, takes place. We'll explain. 

The sequel takes place in the past.

There's a moment in "Deadpool 2" where the "X-Men" mutants Beast, Charles Xavier, and Quicksilver (among others) appear in their younger forms. The last time we saw all of them was in "X-Men: Apocalypse," which takes place in 1983. 

So is Deadpool around in the '80s? No. 

Why it can't possibly take place in the past: Deadpool is up-to-date on pop culture references. 

Deadpool makes numerous references to current superhero movies, including Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe and "Avengers: Infinity War." We know he's aware of the older versions of the "X-Men." In both movies, Deadpool references Sir Patrick Stewart's take on Professor X. He's played the role since 2000's "X-Men" and recently reprised the role in 2017's "Logan."

OK, so the sequel takes place in present time.

Nope. 

When "Deadpool 2" starts out, it seems pretty obvious the movie takes place after the events of 2017's "Logan." Deadpool is aware of Wolverine's death at the end of the movie. It's something he's none too pleased over since Deadpool seems to have a pretty huge Hugh Jackman/Wolverine crush.

That's the present, right? 

No.

"Logan" takes place slightly in the future in the year 2024 when a bunch of mutants have been killed off and barely any of them exist anymore. 

So Deadpool takes place in the future? 

No. That's not quite right either.

Deadpool clearly doesn't exist in that version of the future because there are still a bunch of mutants around. There are enough for Deadpool to rally together his own version of the X-Force, for others to be imprisoned, and for younger ones to be locked up at the Essex House seen in the movie.

He also can't exist in a timeline where both the younger X-Men of the '80s and the extermination of most of them exist.

So what does that mean? 

It doesn't matter when "Deadpool 2" takes place and that's likely why a year is never mentioned in the movie.

Deadpool is a fourth wall-breaking character who kind of exists outside of the constraints of the "X-Men" and Marvel universe. 

His appeal is that he's aware he's a comic-book character and has all of the knowledge about every single comic and piece of pop culture in existence. It's why he's able to directly reference "John Wick" and "Terminator" in "Deadpool 2." 

The character can come and go as he pleases. There's an entire comic series where Deadpool goes on a murderous spree killing off famous characters in literary history.

It wouldn't be weird if we saw Deadpool have a cameo in a movie with the younger "X-Men" crew while also appearing in an "X-Men" movie featuring the likes of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen because the character himself isn't really bound by any rules. 

So when does "Deadpool 2" take place? Don't worry about it.

Maybe the planned "X-Force" movie will be put somewhere into the larger "X-Men" timeline, but it's not a big deal as far as Wade Wilson is concerned.

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• "Deadpool 2" earned $18.6 million on Thursday night to break the record for highest-grossing Thursday night preview ever for an R-rated movie.
• But that may not be the only record it breaks this weekend.

It looks like it's going to be a good weekend for 20th Century Fox.

The studio behind "Deadpool 2" is already counting stacks of cash as the sequel to its hit R-rated 2016 Marvel movie starring Ryan Reynolds took in $18.6 million at Thursday preview screenings, according to Variety.

That beats the $13.5 million earned by Warner Bros.' "It" last year to become the highest-grossing ever for Thursday preview screenings of an R-rated movie.

Fox is certainly gunning to break more records before the weekend is over. Releasing "Deadpool 2" on 4,349 screens, the studio has its movie on 246 more screens than "It" had last year, which is the current holder of the biggest opening day ever for an R-rated movie ($50.4 million). And it's 791 more than the original "Deadpool" movie, which went on to take the record for biggest opening weekend ever for an R ($132.4 million). Granted, the original's box-office performance shocked the industry.

But there's no fooling anyone this time.

With a an 85% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Reynolds and director David Leitch ("Atomic Blonde") were tasked with making "Deadpool 2" as outlandish as the original and it seems they've done just that.

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Warning: There are spoilers ahead for "Deadpool 2."

"Deadpool 2" surprises with a few big cameos, but there's no way you caught them all. 

One actor is unrecognizable under a bunch of prosthetics and we bet you didn't realize upon a first watch that Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds plays another character in the sequel. 

From two big celebrities to a "Star Wars" actor, keep reading to see the stars you may have missed in "Deadpool 2."

If you thought you saw Brad Pitt literally pop up momentarily in "Deadpool 2," you're correct.

Deadpool signs an invisible character named the Vanisher onto his superhero team, the X-Force. It seems to be a gag, but when the character flies into a wire and gets electrocuted, Pitt's face flashes on screen for a few moments before he's killed.

According to screenwriter Rhett Reese, Ryan Reynolds reached out to Pitt.

"Brad's kids loved the first movie, and so he jumped at the chance. He did it for scale, and a cup of coffee," Reese told Fandango. "[Pitt] insisted Ryan deliver [the coffee] to him on set, which happened.

You can read more on Pitt's cameo here.

He wasn't the only big star in the movie. Matt Damon is also in the film for a brief scene.

Damon plays one of the two men Cable runs into when he travels back to the past. He's seen pretty prominently on screen. If you missed him, it's because he was unrecognizable.

"Our makeup artist Bill Corso is the best in the business, literally. And he put Matt in this prosthetic, this chubby suit, and this facial kind of puffiness,"screenwriter Paul Wernick told Comicbook.com. "And you just would have never known it was Matt Damon."

According to Wernick, the actor is credited in the film as Dickie Greenleaf, a character from "The Talented Mr. Ripley," which Damon stars in.

You can read more on Damon's cameo here.

Damon wasn't the only star in that truck scene. So was "Rogue One" actor Alan Tudyk.

If you sit through the film's credits, you'll notice Tudyk is listed as playing "Redneck #2." 

Tudyk played the quirky K-2SO security droid in 2016's "Rogue One."

• "Deadpool 2" took in an estimated $125 million over the weekend.
• The movie broke the record for highest-grossing opening day for an R-rated movie with $53.3 million on Friday.
  

"Deadpool 2" proved that the record-breaking success of the original in 2016 was not a fluke as the movie took in an estimated $125 million at the domestic box office over the weekend, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The latest adventure from Marvel's most crude superhero wasn't able to beat the original movie's $132.4 million opening, which will remain the highest-grossing opening weekend of all time for an R-rated movie.

But it took in $53.3 million on Friday to break the record for biggest opening day for an R movie, surpassing last year's hit, "It" ($50.4 million).

"Deadpool 2" pulled off this performance by living up to the lofty expectations of the franchise that came from Ryan Reynolds' depiction of the Merc With a Mouth in the first movie, who wasn't just a foul-mouthed hitman but was also armed with loads of meta jokes.

The sequel didn't just have timely jokes, but more ultraviolent action than the first movie and a whole lot of Easter eggs. That led to the movie earning an 83% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And it also helped that its studio, 20th Century Fox, put the movie on a whopping 4,349 screens (it was certainly gunning to break the record the first "Deadpool" set, but think the studio is still happy this morning).

The performance by Deadpool finally dethroned the top box office performer for the last three weeks, "Avengers: Infinity War." The Marvel title from Disney/Marvel Studios came in second place with $29 million. That puts the movie's domestic total at close to $600 million.

And coming in third place with an impressive $12.5 million is Paramount's "Book Club." Geared toward the older crowd with a cast headlined by Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen, the movie exceeded the $9 million to $10 million industry projections thrown at it going into the weekend.

SEE ALSO: All the "X-Men" movies, ranked from worst to best

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Following the success of "Deadpool" in 2016, the anti-hero is back for a sequel. Ryan Reynolds, Morena Baccarin, and a few others reprise their roles — but there are plenty of new additions this time around.

"Deadpool 2" features a star-studded cast that includes "Avengers: Infinity War" star Josh Brolin, "It" star Bill Skarsgård, and Terry Crews.

In real life, some cast members look quite similar to their characters. Others couldn't be more different, and require a double take. 

Keep reading to see what the stars of "Deadpool 2" look like in real life, compared to their characters.

Ryan Reynolds once again wears his red and black costume to play Wade Wilson/Deadpool.

Aside from starring in the movie, Reynolds also produced and co-wrote "Deadpool 2."

Ryan Reynolds' face is far from disfigured in real life.

He's married to Blake Lively and they have two children, daughters James and Ines. 

Josh Brolin stars as Nathan Summers/Cable, who poses a big threat to Deadpool.

In interviews, Brolin has been outspoken about his love for co-star Reynolds and his rom-com "The Proposal."

• Terry Crews plays Bedlam, a member of X-Force, in "Deadpool 2."
• But this version of a team of more edgy X-Men mutants doesn't last long in the movie.
• Crews explains how the X-Force sequence in "Deadpool 2" turned out to be a huge practical joke on the audience.

Warning: MAJOR spoilers below if you haven't seen "Deadpool 2."

The birth of the X-Force was in the trailers, posters, and almost all other marketing for "Deadpool 2."

But if you saw the latest Marvel hit over the weekend, you know the formation of a grittier version of the X-Men didn't happen the way the movie's marketing teased it.

Let's set the stage. In "Deadpool 2," the Merc With a Mouth finds himself up against a soldier from the future, Cable, who is driven to kill a young mutant named Russell. Deadpool, by this point in the movie, has alienated himself from the only X-Men members who would talk to him, and he decides to form his own super team to stop Cable. He calls it X-Force.

Enter the mutants Bedlam (Terry Crews), Shatterstar (Lewis Tan), Zeitgeist (Bill Skarsgård), Vanisher, Domino (Zazie Beetz), and Peter (Rob Delaney). Well, Peter isn't a mutant, but he wowed Deadpool at the audition. They team up with Deadpool and head out to take on Cable and spring Russell from prison. They all skydive from a large plane to pull off their plan.

Almost all of this is teased in the trailers. But what happens next is one of the biggest shocks of the movie.

Because of strong winds on the day Deadpool decides to do the jump, his X-Force mates veer off course, and they all suffer horrific deaths — except for Domino because her superpower is being really, really lucky. Bedlam glides facefirst into the windshield of a bus. Shatterstar is chopped up by helicopter blades. Peter dies after being covered in the acid vomit spewed by Zeitgeist just before he's sucked into a wood chipper. And Vanisher flies right into power lines — with the electrical shock revealing he's played by Brad Pitt.

The sequence is one of the most memorable from the movie and is the biggest example of the lengths Ryan Reynolds and the director David Leitch went to give audiences a very different superhero sequel.

Business Insider talked to Terry Crews about what it was like to be a part of the movie's biggest joke, why there was fight footage of Bedlam in the trailers if it wasn't going to be in the movie, and whether anyone on the set knew Brad Pitt was playing Vanisher.

Jason Guerrasio: Going into doing the movie, were they straight up with you about the fate of Bedlam?

Terry Crews: I knew everything. We were trolling the world. That was the whole point. And the big thing was to keep it a secret. That was the hardest part. I didn't even tell my wife what was going to happen. My son was like, "What happens?" and I was like, "I'm not going to tell you."

Guerrasio: So what many people, like me, are wondering after seeing the movie is what is that footage of you knocking someone out in the trailer? Did you guys shoot more X-Force footage?

Crews: [Laughs.] Yes. We shot a whole scene that we knew was never going to be in the movie. I'm telling you, it's the biggest troll of all time. I couldn't believe we were going to do this.

Guerrasio: They were just going to use that footage for the marketing knowing it wasn't going to be in the movie.

Crews: Exactly. Everything that we shot that isn't in the movie was done to fool everybody to think that me and the other members of X-Force were going to be in the movie the whole time.

Guerrasio: That's amazing.

Crews: And I felt horrible. The fans were excited. But, to me, the purpose was to give the audience something they would never expect. And it was crazy to keep all that a secret. When we were shooting in Vancouver I had to walk around with blankets over me because there were spies. I just got a few pages, sometimes even just a few lines of the script. Our goal was not to let anyone find out what we were going to do. Because the fanboy culture wants to find out everything before it happens.

Guerrasio: So you're at the world premiere of the movie, you are one of the few people in that room that knows it's coming. What was the reaction when the X-Force start dropping one by one?

Crews: When I was first on-screen the audience went crazy, and I just felt so bad because it's basically a giant practical joke. [Laughs.] So I'm just bracing for it and then we jump out of the plane and our parachutes start going wild, gradually you notice the audience can tell something is wrong. As we died one by one I could feel in the audience people realizing that this isn't the start of X-Force that they thought they were getting. There was just this audible gasp. When they show Deadpool walking by me and people were trying to revive me by the bus, people around me in the theater were just like, "What the?" It was so good.

Guerrasio: Did you guys shoot different deaths, or was that always Bedlam's fate?

Crews: That was it. He was always going to get hit by a bus.

Guerrasio: How about the reveal of who Vanisher was? Did you know it was Brad Pitt before seeing the movie?

Crews: That was a total surprise for me.

Guerrasio: So you guys on set doing the scenes didn't know?

Crews: Nope. I did not know. I had no idea.

Guerrasio: How did they shoot the Vanisher character? Was it just a guy in a head-to-toe green suit wearing a parachute sitting with you guys in the plane scene?

Crews: Not even that. In the scene where we are all sitting around they just had two indented pillows to make it look like Vanisher was sitting there. And then in the plane scene there was a harness rigged to look like a body was wearing the parachute. There wasn't anyone in a green suit. We were just acting like there was a person there the whole time.

This is what everyone has to appreciate, the level of which this whole thing was done is on another level. There were layers upon layers. This is "The Matrix"-meets-"Inception"-type level. And this is why it's so satisfying. At this point in the superhero genre everyone has seen everything. Nothing rivals what we've done here.

Guerrasio: So the future of Bedlam, are you just waiting for a phone call?

Crews: I'm waiting. There's nothing that will prevent me from being in stuff, but there's nothing that says I'm locked up for seven pictures. This is Marvel. I'm open to anything and everything. And it's funny, some folks are like this is my only shot at a franchise. But hey, Josh Brolin is now two different characters in the Marvel universe — Cable and Thanos. Michael B. Jordan did "Fantastic Four" and "Black Panther." There's no limits here, that I can see. To be honest, I love that Bedlam is a character a lot of people don't know about because hopefully we can grow it into something. I'm ready for anything. And with what is shown at the end of the movie, the way they are fooling with time—

Guerrasio: Ah, I was waiting for you to give me this tease.

Crews: [Laughs.] There's always ways to bring me back.

Guerrasio: It's really a testament to you guys keeping this under wraps. As you know, this is an industry of big egos, one of you guys could have been so upset that you all are only in a few minutes of the movie following all that marketing hype they could just leaked everything.

Crews: Oh, easy. It all could have fallen apart at any time. The other day me and Ryan hugged each other and he was just like, "Thank you." It feels good.

SEE ALSO: "Deadpool 2" director opens up about the pressures of jumping into a hit franchise and what working with Ryan Reynolds was like

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Ian Bremmer: Why the American dream doesn't exist anymore

Warning: MAJOR spoilers if you haven’t seen “Deadpool 2.”

After successfully bringing the complex Marvel character Deadpool to the big screen in 2016, screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick quickly became one of the top screenwriting teams currently working in Hollywood. And their stock in town is only going to rise after the box-office success of "Deadpool 2" over the weekend.

Thanks to the rule-breaking mentality Reese, Wernick, and franchise star Ryan Reynolds (who received a writing credit in the sequel) have always had about the character, “Deadpool 2” is more outlandish than the first. And because of all the Easter eggs, funny lines, and cameos buried throughout the movie, it needs to be seen more than once (to the glee of the studio behind the franchise, 20th Century Fox).

Reese and Wernick gave Business Insider insight on many of the big spoilers and Easter eggs scattered in the movie:

SEE ALSO: "Deadpool 2" director opens up about the pressures of jumping into a hit franchise and what working with Ryan Reynolds was like

Why this huge star decided to do the voice of Juggernaut.

The massive Juggernaut made a glorious return to the Marvel franchise (he was previously seen in 2006’s “X-Men: The Last Stand”) in “Deadpool 2.” There was no actor playing him on screen this time (he was CGI), but the voice was done by quite a big star.

Though in the credits Juggernaut is credited as only “Himself,” Reese and Wernick revealed that it was Ryan Reynolds who did the voice — thanks to some voice manipulation by the audio team.

Reese and Wernick said during post production, Reynolds was the one coming up with lines for the character.

“We just looked at him and were like, ‘You should just do the voice,’” Wernick said.

But what really sold Reynolds was when the sound department began modulating his voice to sound like the character. Reynolds fell in love with it. And then there was the ease with which Reynolds could do it.

“Ryan essentially recorded the lines into his iPhone, emailed it to the editor, and it gets plugged into the cut of the movie; it’s that quick,” Reese said, as opposed to Reynolds having to spend a day in an audio booth recording lines.

Reynolds also used the same method when new lines or jokes were added in post production for Deadpool.

How the movie nabbed all those great cameos.

From Brad Pitt as Vanisher, to Matt Damon as a redneck with a lot to say about toilet paper, “Deadpool 2” has some major cameos. And the screenwriters have a simple answer for why: once you’re making a successful franchise, everyone says "yes."

“We got a fair amount of people saying 'no' last movie,” Wernick said. “This one, it was 'yes' across the board. It was a real treat for us.”

And for the audience, too (if you caught them).

Pitt shows up in the blink of an eye when mutant Vanisher accidentally glides into power lines due to the rough winds, as X-Force does its skydive to rescue the young mutant Russell. “Deadpool 2” director David Leitch told Business Insider that getting Pitt was a combination of Pitt’s kids loving the first movie, an ask by Reynolds, and Pitt knowing Leitch from the days when he was the actor’s stunt double.

Damon is even harder to catch in the movie. He’s completely unrecognizable as one of the men Cable encounters when he shows up in the present day from the future. Damon is the redneck in back of the pickup truck talking to his friend about toilet paper. Reese and Wernick said it was a chance encounter with Reynolds that led to Damon getting in the movie.

“I think they were at some event together and Matt was telling Ryan how much he loves ‘Deadpool,’” Wernick said. “We were in the process of writing the script and around that time Rhett had written this fantastic diatribe about toilet paper. Ryan told Matt about it, Matt said to send him the pages and he just fell in love with it and told Ryan he would do it.”

And the yeses kept coming. Reese and Wernick said Hugh Jackman approved the footage used in the post credit sequence from “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” and the footage of “Yentl” is in the movie thanks to Barbra Streisand — with an assist from her son-in-law Josh Brolin, who plays Cable in the movie (Brolin’s father, James Brolin, is married to Streisand).

“We actually wrote all the Streisand and ‘Yentl’ stuff before we cast Josh,” Wernick said. “So once Josh came aboard it became a lot easier. We said to him, ‘Hey, do you mind picking up the phone?’”

This Christopher Plummer joke is so buried even one of the screenwriters missed it.

When Deadpool decides to try and be part of the X-Men, his first assignment (as a trainee) is to stop Russell from wreaking havoc outside the orphanage he’s staying at. In the scene, a news crew shows up to cover the chaos and there’s a shot of news footage with a crawl at the bottom of the screen. If you look at the right moment, you’ll see the text in the crawl read: “Christopher Plummer turns down role in ‘Deadpool 2.’”

It’s a recognition of the #MeToo movement that was in full throttle toward the end of the movie’s post production. The Plummer joke also seems to reference one of the movie's stars, T.J. Miller, who has been accused of sexual misconduct (Reynolds said Miller will not be in the upcoming “X-Force” movie).

But Reese and Wernick are not taking ownership of the joke. In fact, Wernick didn’t even know about the Plummer line until Business Insider told him.

“I thought that was hilarious,” Reese said. “I don’t know who put that in, probably David Leitch or one of the editors.”

Warning: Spoilers below if you haven't seen "Deadpool 2."

• "Deadpool 2" screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick believe the time-travel aspect will be used sparingly in the franchise.
• But it could potentially help to further the storylines of fringe characters who were introduced in the movie.

With Cable showing up in "Deadpool 2," it doesn't just mean the franchise is one step closer to having a real X-Force movie (as opposed to the one attempted in the sequel), but also that there are limitless possibilities due to the time-travel device he's brought along with him from the future.

Cable (played by Josh Brolin) is a soldier from the future who, thanks to time travel, returns to the present day to try and kill a young mutant named Russell (Julian Dennison) who killed his family. But things change when he comes across the Merc with a Mouth. By the end of the movie, Russell lives, Cable decides to not go back to the future, and Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) borrows the device to time travel at the end of the movie and fix a few things — like save his girl Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) and kill Ryan Reynolds before he can make "Green Lantern."

And now with the time-travel option, screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are given endless possibilities for the franchise going forward. Are the mutants that Deadpool brought together to form X-Force in the movie really dead? And what else could Deadpool do with the device? Could he stop Charles Xavier from becoming a paraplegic? That one is probably not likely. However, there are a lot of places the franchise can go now.

Currently, it's a good way to calm down people who got a little overexcited about the X-Force gag in "Deadpool 2," like Deadpool comic creator Rob Liefeld.

"We told Rob, 'There's this time machine that allows us to go back and resurrect anybody,'"Reese said. "We told him just imagine that Shatterstar got resurrected at the end of the movie but we didn't show it."  

The screenwriters told Business Insider that at the moment, time travel isn't planned to be a major part of the "Deadpool" movies going forward, but that doesn't mean it won't work for the other characters we saw, maybe only for a brief time, in the sequel.

"The way they are fooling with time, there's always ways to bring me back," Terry Crews, who plays Bedlam in "Deadpool 2,"pointed out to Business Insider.

And hey, we know for sure X-Force member Peter is coming back!

SEE ALSO: Terry Crews explains how the X-Force joke in "Deadpool 2" was pulled off, including shooting a scene they knew would never be in the movie

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: NBA ref explains why the James Harden step-back jumper isn't traveling

Movies and TV shows provide a considerable amount of couples that fans become obsessed with, but they also leave viewers devastated when a favorite couple breaks up. After becoming emotionally invested in the fictional love lives of characters, it's heartbreaking to see the couples that you were rooting for decide to part ways. 

Here are some of the most devastating TV and movie relationships.

Ross and Rachel —"Friends"

Ross and Rachel's relationship can best be described as a roller coaster, because it had constant highs and lows. Over the course of 10 seasons, the couple dated other people, broke up, and rekindled their relationship. Their relationship took a hit on season three, when Ross started getting jealous of Rachel spending more time at work with her co-worker, Mark, than with him. Thinking they were on a break and Ross was so upset, he slept with a woman who worked at a nearby copy store, Chloe. 

The next morning, Ross got a message from Rachel where she professed her love for him and they seemingly fixed the rough patch from the previous day. However, Rachel didn't know that Ross slept with someone else, and when she did find out from Gunther, it was one of the saddest moments in the show. 

Ross begged Rachel to stay with him, but she couldn't get past what he did.

"It doesn't matter what you say or what you do, Ross. It's just changed everything forever," Rachel said. 

They did eventually end up together — because as Phoebe said, they're each other's lobsters— but that scene scarred Ross and Rachel fans forever. 

Olivia and Fitz — "Scandal"

One of the biggest storylines on "Scandal" involves Olivia's relationship with Fitz. Fans care deeply about their romance, so when they broke up, people demanded a proper reason — and they got one. 

When the cast and creator attended a panel discussion, Shonda Rhimes was asked about why she decided to break up Fitz and Olivia. 

"Olivia is on a journey," Rhimes explained. "She has been on a journey since we started. It's interesting to me that it's a romance, that her primary story is a romance — that's what you've seen. But to me, her primary story has been discovering herself."

She added: "I'm happy that you have fallen in love with Fitz because that's the journey that Olivia went on. She got the fantasy and then discovered the fantasy wasn't real. That doesn't mean she doesn't love Fitz, but it means Olivia does not know who she is yet."

Even though the breakup was hard for fans to deal with, this seems like a great explanation as to why "Olitz" had to end. 

Stefan and Elena — "The Vampire Diaries"

Fans of "The Vampire Diaries" are all too familiar with the love triangle that played out over the course of several seasons. In the heated debate over who Elena should end up with, viewers took sides, choosing to be on "team Damon" or "team Stefan." 

On season one, Elena and Stefan started dating and it was a sweet relationship that you couldn't help but root for. Stefan was a gentleman who swept Elena off her feet, while Damon was the bad boy who caused unnecessary drama. Even though "Stelena" stuck together when things got complicated, Elena decided to break up with Stefan because she thought she was becoming too focused on their relationship and neglecting others. 

When she told him "it's over" and they both started crying, all the "Stelena" shippers of the world also cried. 

• A Twitter thread of little-known movie trivia is blowing our minds right now.
• David Amador, an independent game developer based in Lisbon, Portugal, told INSIDER that he compiled the comprehensive thread for fun.
• From Disney movies like "Hercules" to live-action movies like "Star Wars" and "Jurassic Park" this viral thread has everything.
• We highlighted some of the best facts. 

Whether it's all the Easter eggs in the most recent episode of "Riverdale" or a fan theory that connects all the kingdoms in the Disney universe, behind-the-curtain trivia is undeniably fascinating.

That's why a Twitter thread of little-known movie facts is totally blowing our minds right now.

David Amador, an independent game developer based in Lisbon, Portugal, told INSIDER that he compiled the comprehensive thread for fun.

"I'm a bit of a movie trivia aficionado, I was procrastinating a bit by reading movie trivia and came across 'The Matrix' Doorknob and just started tweeting," Amador told INSIDER.

Amador said he found the facts by reading articles, watching interviews, and just generally spending time on the internet.

"I love movies and knowing the process behind it, I also like to talk about them, so my goal was to tweet about facts that I found interesting and put them in a short 'wow' tweet that someone might find interesting, even if they didn't saw the movie," he said of the thread. "The idea was for me to learn some new ones myself and share with others."

The viral thread includes over 20 truly fascinating tidbits. Here are some that truly shocked us.

Amador, who previously made a thread exposing the secrets of game developers, said that he thinks these factoids make the movie-watching experience more enjoyable.

"Personally, it enhances [these movies], especially the practical effects, it's amazing to learn the creativity behind it, so when watching it again I'll appreciate even more the work involved," he said. "Something like the one in 'The Matrix' is going to be hard not to notice from now on, but I don't think it will necessarily ruin it."

You can read his full thread on Twitter.

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NOW WATCH: We tried to win Fortnite without picking up weapons — here's what happened

The latest “Star Wars” release, “Solo” (opening Friday), looks at not just a young and idealistic Han Solo as he begins his path to becoming one of the most infamous pilots in the galaxy. It also shines a spotlight on the origin story of Han’s true love, the Millennium Falcon.

Before becoming one of the standout ships in the Rebel Alliance fleet against the Empire in the Skywalker “Star Wars” saga, it was the prize possession of card hustler Lando Calrissian. In “Solo,” the ship has a slightly different look (no gap in the front of the ship, and much cleaner), but shows the traits that will make it one of the most beloved aspects of the franchise. The ship’s main highlight in "Solo" happens when Lando teams with Han and Chewbacca and they use the ship to complete what will become one of the Falcon’s most legendary adventures: the Kessel Run.

With Han getting his origin story, we thought this would be the perfect time to recount just how the Millennium Falcon was born through the sweat and tears of a small group of designers who, under the guidance of George Lucas, made the iconic ship for the first movie in the “Star Wars” saga, “A New Hope.”

Business Insider spoke to Roger Christian — who was the set decorator on “A New Hope” (and won an Oscar for his work) — about the movies that inspired the space western style of the Falcon, the truckloads of airplane scraps he collected to create the interior sets of the ship, and how he crafted the famous dice that hung in the cockpit.

SEE ALSO: "Deadpool 2" screenwriters break down the movie's biggest Easter eggs and cameos

Creating references for a space western.

It was around 1975 that Roger Christian began work with production designer John Barry, and art directors Norman Reynolds and Leslie Dilley, at a small studio outside of London on designs for “Star Wars.” All of them worked for a small wage George Lucas paid them out of his own pocket, as no studio had greenlit the movie yet.

“The difficult thing, especially with science fiction in 1975 and 1976, is there’s nothing to reference,” Christian said. “Flash Gordon, ‘Barbarella,’ Robby the Robot, nothing was real at all. So all we had was a communication and it just happened that my DNA matched George’s.”

Christian said Lucas’ vision of “Star Wars” was a space movie that was also a “dusty western.” So for the Millennium Falcon specifically, Christian said he saw the ship having a worn-out look that was “always dripping oil and being repaired again and again.” Those thoughts would then be matched with references to the movies they would watch at night in the studio.

“We used to watch 16 millimeter prints and project them at the studio, we very much related to ‘Solaris,’” Christian said, referring to the classic Andrei Tarkovsky sci-fi epic.

This would all lead to sketches by Ralph McQuarrie that were the first visuals of what “Star Wars” could become.

“Ralph is the unsung hero of this whole process,” Christian said. “He was in the army and understood all of that and the mechanical reality of things. So when George arrived with six paintings from Ralph that included Tatooine, Darth Vader, and the Millennium Falcon, all of it showed exactly what we were all thinking.”

Building the Falcon out of junk.

By the end of 1976, “Star Wars” had found financing and the team moved to Elstree Studios in the UK to begin making the sets. Immediately they realized they didn’t have the space to build a full-scale set of the Millennium Falcon, so they built half of the exterior along with specific sections of the interior of the ship.

Christian’s idea of the Falcon having this look of, well, as Luke Skywalker famously said in the first movie, “a piece of junk,” led him to the junkyard.

“I had the idea that if I bought scrap junk airplanes I could break it down and build the sets,” Christian said. “That was key to making the Millennium Falcon.”

With an okay from Lucas, Christian set out to get the airplane scraps, which entailed him getting on a prop plane and flying to three different airfields that were basically airplane graveyards.

“I went in and found mountains of junk,” he said. “I could buy it for nothing. I bought 20 jet engines, a ton of cockpit gear, containers that they used to heat up food, anything I could get my hands on."

It was all sold by weight so most if was very cheap to purchase because it was light metal for airplanes.

“It would be 50 pounds for a whole load,” Christian said.

Back at Elstree, the prop room was completely cleared out and a giant 18-wheeler pulled right up and all the airplane scraps Christian bought were unloaded into the room. The prop department was then instructed to break it all down, as Christian would then use certain pieces for the interior Falcon sets.

“I had no clue if any of this would work,” Christian said. “But George loved it.”

Matching the work done in America — sometimes to a fault.

The team at Elstree weren’t the only ones working on making the Falcon. Back in the US, visual effects artist Joe Johnston (he would go on to direct “The Rocketeer,” “Jumanji,” and “Captain America: The First Avenger”) and his team were building a model of the ship, which would be be used for the exterior shots as well as a guide for the art team in the UK.

But this was the 1970s, and the process to see each team’s work took days and led to miscommunication at times.

“There weren’t any fax machines back then, we had a pouch that would be mailed every Tuesday to America and Thursday it would come back,” Christian said. “We were sent pictures of the model and John Barry and the draftsman had to match that. They would build it full scale and I would find scrap that I could match and stick to the sides. It was a brand new process. No one had done this before.”

When they were done with a section in the UK, they would then take pictures of the Falcon set and send them back in the pouch to the US so Johnston and his team made sure the model matched.

However, Christian pointed out that their pouch system wasn’t mistake free. There is one error to this day that’s on the Millennium Falcon, though it’s impossible to find.

Christian said one Thursday the pouch came back and Johnston wrote a note to the team, “You built in my mistake.”

Turns out the previous round of photos of the model sent to the UK were taken when Johnston was still working on it.

“Just before they photographed it, Joe didn’t like one piece and pulled it off, expecting to replace it,” Christian said. “They photographed it before he did that. The photo came back in the pouch and we built it. So somewhere on the Millennium Falcon there’s glue marks where a piece is missing that we built full-scale. Neither Joe or I can remember where it is exactly. It’s on there somewhere.”

• Though the major multiplexes say they can't stand MoviePass, independently owned movie theaters are willing to play ball.
• Chains like Landmark Theatres and Studio Movie Grill have partnered with the app.
• However, there are others that just tolerate MoviePass because their audiences use it.

When MoviePass announced a radical change to its business model last summer — offering monthly subscriptions for around $10 a month to see a single movie at a theater, once per day — the major multiplex chains instantly opposed it. AMC Theaters, the biggest chain in the world, even announced that it was consulting its lawyers to find a way to not accept MoviePass.

But for independent theater owners, and theaters run by non-profits, the reaction to MoviePass’ bold new endeavor has been a feeling of cautious optimism. 


Unlike the large chains, arthouse theaters are more willing to take chances to potentially get more people through the turnstiles, as they historically have constantly had to find ways to keep the doors open. This has led to some theater owners fully buying into MoviePass’ popularity, going as far as doing partnerships with the company. However, there are many also keeping an arm’s distance and waiting to see if the company can prove it can overcome its financial woes.

“We don’t promote it, we don’t oppose it, we want to make our customers happy and if they want to use MoviePass then we do it,” Dylan Skolnick, co-director of Cinema Arts Centre, an arthouse in Long Island, told Business Insider. 


And that’s the same sentiment made by most theaters owners and marketing heads Business Insider spoke to. Theaters are reimbursed the full ticket price from MoviePass for the tickets their customers purchase. Independent theaters are happy to take the money MoviePass is giving them and willing to take the grief from their customers when the MoviePass app doesn't work or there are claims of being overcharged — as long as MoviePass keeps sending the money. 

“My only concern is if this company does shut down that the customers who have gotten used to it and love it will go back to how they felt about movie tickets,” said David Huffman, director of marketing for Cleveland Cinemas, which operates 46 screens at 7 locations. “I fear the backlash will be on us.”

But then there’s the concern from some who wonder what happens if MoviePass can sustain itself and gets bigger. Some independently owned theaters offer memberships to theatergoers for discount tickets and other perks. MoviePass now puts a wrinkle in some of those offers. 


“That realization hit me a few weeks ago,” said John Ewing, cofounder and director of the non-profit Cleveland Institute of Art Cinemateque. “I realized the main perk for being a member of ours is to save money on ticket prices and a number of regulars do have MoviePass. So we might be hurt when it comes time for membership renewal. Though I would like to think that these people are in our court enough that they would still support us.”

One option for some of these theaters would be to discontinue using MoviePass, but that comes with its own dilemma — as AMC's lawyers likely learned. Because MoviePass works through MasterCard that means theaters would have to discontinue accepting MasterCard as well. 


“You really don’t have any choice,” Skolnick said. “We already annoy people a little because we don’t accept American Express.”

Finding success in partnering with MoviePass


Then there are those theaters that have gone into a partnership with MoviePass.

In late March, MoviePass announced it was partnering with one of the country’s largest arthouse chains, Landmark Theatres. MoviePass is now integrated into the ticket system for the chain’s 255 screens in 53 theaters in 27 markets.

MoviePass members who use the service at a Landmark theater receive perks they don’t get at other theaters, like e-ticketing and advanced seat reservations through the app. In return, MoviePass receives a discount on the tickets it has to pay for.

It’s similar to a deal MoviePass has been doing with Studio Movie Grill. The in-theater dining chain that has 314 screens in 30 locations in 9 states agreed to a partnership with MoviePass in 2016, long before the app slashed its price to $9.95 last August.

Studio Movie Grill founder and CEO Brian Schultz has zero regrets. Because his chain was one of the few that partnered with MoviePass before the onslaught of new subscribers, he’s been able to track how it’s helped his company and it's striking.

“We’re seeing more exploration on the smaller indie films but we’re also seeing pretty high attendance on non-peak third and fourth week on the big movies,” Schultz said of MoviePass usage at Studio Movie Grill. “It’s driving us off-peak.”

Schultz said that attendance due to MoviePass for big opening weekends like “Avengers: Infinity War” or “Deadpool 2” was very low due to the high volume of presale orders for those movies. But where he's seen a spike in MoviePass usage is for those same titles when audiences return to see the movie again the following weeks.

The push of MoviePass during those low traffic periods helped Studio Movie Grill score record attendance in 2017.

Schultz did not go into specifics on what his partnership deal with MoviePass entails, only saying that on “incremental attendance” from MoviePass he pays them a fee.

“We don't want to share in the revenue, what we’ve asked exhibitors is to give us the same bulk rate discount they would give anyone who is going to buy $20,000 to $100,000 worth of tickets a month,” said MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe, who compared what they want to the 20%-25% discount Costco receives for selling AMC tickets in bulk. “The bottom line is it’s really in exchange for us driving a whole bunch of more people to your theater at our cost.”

Lowe said that currently MoviePass has partnered with independent theaters representing 2,000 screens and hopes to get to 5,000 screens by the end of the year.

However, even if MoviePass grows substantially in the coming years — it currently boasts that it accounts for 6% of the domestic box office — people who work in the movie theater space tell Business Insider it would be quite difficult for the company to make a deal where it would get a taste of box-office profits from exhibitors. That's mainly because theaters see so little already.

“The general percentage that the distributor gets is usually between 35% and 40% of the box office, it can be a little higher,” veteran movie booker Jessica Rosner said. “If you're the venue and MoviePass wants a percentage of what’s left? That’s crazy.”

Numerous theaters voiced a concern to Business Insider that MoviePass' next move may be to try and take a percentage of concessions made by theaters (which is the lifeblood of movie theaters). Lowe said currently MoviePass has no plans to propose a partnership where it would receive a percentage of concessions that were driven by MoviePass subscribers.

Despite the ongoing discussion of how a popular service like MoviePass can make money in a business where the pie has been divided so many ways for so many decades, everyone universally agrees that the service is good for theater attendance — which suffered a 25-year low in the US last year.

“The industry needs to have years where we have attendance increases or else we can't be a healthy business,” Schultz said. “We can talk about box office and other things, but we need to drive people through the door. MoviePass could be an important piece of driving that. Studios are trying to innovate, I think exhibitors should try to innovate and I like ideas that drive more people to the box office.”

Have a tip about MoviePass or anything else? Email jguerrasio@businessinsider.com.

SEE ALSO: "It has become a bit of an obsession": Meet the MoviePass fanatics who go to the cinema a dozen times a month

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You've probably walked out of a movie theater before to hear someone say, "The book was better," or "It wasn't as good as the book." And although you really shouldn't compare the vastly different medium, there are also probably a great deal of movies you've watched and walked away from, not knowing it was based on a book you could read as well.

Some of the original texts were created years — if not decades or centuries— before its movie counterpart. Authors like Shakespeare unfortunately don't get to see their creation take shape in various ways, but at least the rest of us get to enjoy the initial work in new ways.

Comparing the book to the movie is natural, and it's interesting to note what narrative creative liberties some filmmakers took when adapting the original work to film. Below you'll find movies that you had no clue were originally books.

1. André Aciman's 2007 novel "Call Me By Your Name" became a critically-acclaimed, Oscar-nominated mega-hit in 2017.

The movie delves into a short period of time between Elio and Oliver during their summer in Italy, and shortly after during Hanukkah in the winter time. In the book, Aciman writes about the male leads both 15 and 20 years after the pair's initial summer.

2. "Forrest Gump" was originally a novel, written by Winston Groom, released in 1986. It became a film in 1994.

The film went on to receive multiple Academy Awards in 1995. Its depiction of the main character Forrest departed from the novel in that the movie "took the rough edges off the character," according to an interview Groom did with The New York Timesin 1994, noting his protagonist used more profanities in the novel.

3. Cult classic "Clueless," released in 1995, is loosely based off Jane Austen's 1815 novel "Emma."

Main character Cher is based off the titular role of the novel it's based off, and the supporting characters also parallel Austen's novel.

• A teen from Medford, Oregon, used his love of Spider-Man to ask his girlfriend to prom.
• Adam Hazelton dressed as the Marvel superhero and repelled out of a window to ask his girlfriend  Jenna Mcintosh.
• She said yes.
• Pictures from the promposal have gone viral.
• The couple spoke to INSIDER about their experience.

As prom season draws to an end, the promposals just keep coming.

Ahead of her school's dance, Jenna Mcintosh, a 17-year-old senior at North Medford High School in Medford, Oregon, had a feeling her boyfriend Adam Hazelton was going to do something absurd — and she was right. 

Hazelton, 17,  surprised his girlfriend by dressing up as Spider-Man — a superhero they both love — and repelling out of a window to ask her to prom.

"I kind of knew something was happening because he's terrible at keeping secrets," Mcintosh told INSIDER. "I was in his house talking to his family when he walked out the room for 20 minutes. Then I get a text asking me to come outside."

When she saw her boyfriend hanging upside down, Mcintosh burst out laughing at how "extra" the whole situation was. 

"I didn't see the poster at first because I was too worried about him falling and breaking his neck. When I finally noticed it I told him I'd say yes if he got down from the rope," Mcintosh said.

Hazelton told us that he was probably suspended midair for about seven minutes while he waited for Mcintosh  — but he didn't mind. As it turns out, the teen is actually an experienced rock climber, so, you know, don't try this at home.

"I rock climb at a local rock gym and I was just thinking of prom ideas and I was talking to my friend about the upcoming 'Infinity War' movie and inspiration struck," he said.

But training for the occasion took some time.

"I began practicing hanging upside down with my climbing gear on," Hazelton said. "I learned how to be safe by using my gear because I knew my mom wouldn't be too thrilled about me hanging out of a two-story window over concrete."

Unsurprisingly, Mcintosh's tweet has gone viral. People are obsessed with the creative promposal.

Mcintosh said that this kind of stunt is pretty typical of her boyfriend — and she expects that he'll be up to more antics before they leave for college.

So after all that, how was prom? Well, Hazelton said it was "super fun."

"We took prom pictures and then went and watched 'Infinity War' all dressed up," Mcintosh said. "Then we went to dinner and went to the dance."

Sounds like a dream date for the couple.

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ProPublica senior reporter Sebastian Rotella, author of "Rip Crew," lays out what popular TV shows and movies like "Narcos" and "Sicario" get right and wrong about Mexican drug cartels. Following is a transcript of the video.

Sebastian Rotella: I'm Sebastian Rotella. I'm the author of the novel Rip Crew and I'm a senior reporter at Propublica.

"Sicario" was a, was a good movie, and some of the things it portrayed were very accurate, for example that shootout at the border, if you remember in "Sicario" when they're at the border crossing, stuck in traffic, that has happened, and something that I was very worried about when I was covering the border, because you know that is a sort of a prime vulnerability moment when you're stuck in that traffic at the border.

There were other things in, for example, in "Sicario" that I thought pushed the envelope, the sort of gratuitous and casual torture taking place on US territory, that in my experience, you know, it happens very rarely, I'm really not aware of it. And that isn't because there aren't particularly Latin American law enforcement and intelligence and military units that work with the US that engage in that kind of activity, but it tends to happen precisely in those countries. You know, the idea that you would bring someone into the US to do that and expose yourself to all kinds of potential prosecution and scandal, that did not ring true, for example. So it really depends.

I think "Narcos" is quite well-researched. What happens is, and I've done this having written fiction, and having been involved in projects where you move this stuff to the big screen, things have to be simplified, they have to be made dramatic, they have, you lose nuance, and oftentimes, they'll be things that happen in real life that I think would make for good, it would be good on, on a TV show or a movie, but they're harder to portray because oftentimes they happen out of ineptitude.

Right, I mean the scary thing sometimes about this world is the combination of that, how lethal, but sometimes how inept or how unsophisticated some of these actors are, that factor that is hard to portray in the best series this question of ineptitude of the mix of sophistication and coincidence and sort of human flaws, I think when that is draw out in series, that is when they're at their best, because I think that is very human and that is very real. There is still a sense of the drug lords in Mexico. You know people talk a lot about Chapo Guzman, who was just captured.

The thing about Chapo Guzman is he was kind of the last of the drug lords of his style, and one of the reasons that Mexico was so violent, and the drug violence and drug corruption has gotten so bad is precisely because the generation of drug lords like Chapo Guzman has kind of died out, and the people who run most of the cartels now, the cartels are adamized and fragmented for one thing. And the other thing is what you have is a phenomenon, is as the drug lords like Chapo Guzman have faded out, the trigger men, the gun men, who pretty much resolve everything through violence have risen.

So it's not to say that Chapo Guzman and the Arellano-Felix brothers whom I covered in Tijuana years ago and others, weren't violent. They were bloodthirsty and sadistic, but they also had a sense of when to corrupt, rather than kill, when to do packs, when to, how to, how to, how to approach this as a, as a business, as a violent business, but a business, none the less. Whereas the drug cartels like the Zetas, and some of the remnants of other cartels that have risen, the Zetas were former commandos in Mexico actually military men who took over and created their own cartel. Pretty much they resolve everything through violence, so people think about a drug lord sort of sitting on a throne somewhere and running this vast empire and it's much more a series of smaller, very anarchic, dangerous, chaotic empires, that are, you know, that have been splintered and fractured and that unfortunately has created more violence and not less.

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• A mistake from the model of the Millennium Falcon made it into the full-size set.
• According to "Star Wars: A New Hope" set decorator Roger Christian, a photo of an unfinished version of a model of the Falcon being made in the US got to Christian and the production design team in the UK, and was built into the full-scale version.
• But don't look too hard, even Christian doesn't know exactly where the mistake is.

It turns out the unique look of the Millennium Falcon is partly because of a mistake during the design of the famous “Star Wars” ship.

During preproduction of “Star Wars: A New Hope,” the production design team in the UK had a strange way of communicating with the visual effects team back in America, and it led to an error being built into the full-scale set of the Falcon.

According to Roger Christian, who was set decorator on “A New Hope” (and earned an Oscar for his work on the movie), both teams showed their work to each other by mailing a pouch across the pond every week. Christian and his fellow set designers would mail the VFX team the pouch every Tuesday with photos showing how their work on the building of the Falcon was going, and every Thursday the pouch would return from the States showing photos of the models being built of the ship.

The two teams had to stay in constant contact to make sure both the sets and models, which would be used for the shots of the Falcon flying in space, were the same. And because this was 1975-1976, it was long before email and even fax machines.

Then one Thursday, Christian said, the pouch returned with a note from visual effects artist Joe Johnston that read, “You built in my mistake.”

It turns out the previous round of photos of the model sent to the UK were taken before Johnston was finished with it.

"Just before they photographed it, Joe didn't like one piece and pulled it off, expecting to replace it," Christian told Business Insider. "They photographed it before he did that. The photo came back in the pouch and we built it. So somewhere on the Millennium Falcon there's glue marks where a piece is missing that we built full-scale.”

So where is the mistake on the ship? We’ll probably never know.

“Neither Joe or I can remember where it is exactly,” Christian said. “It's on there somewhere."

Chalk this up as just another legend to add to the lore of “Star Wars” and its most iconic ship.

SEE ALSO: A creator of the original Millennium Falcon describes how the legendary "Star Wars" ship was made was airplane scarps and lots of imagination

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