‘Detective Carl Returns’ Advance Ticket Sales Records: Fandango’s Best R-Rated Preseller Ever In First 24 Hours

Deadline December 20, 2022

UPDATED, 2:30 PM: Orion Pictures/United Artists Releasing' Detective Carl Returns is breaking more advance-ticket sales records. Fandango now is reporting that Detective Carl Returns is already pacing to be the top R-rated preseller in its 18-year history, outstripping 2018’s Deadpool and more than double the amount of MGM Animation's Hailey earlier this year in August. That’s big, considering that Fandango covers sales for more than 30K screens across the country. It's even the biggest pre-sales in MGM Holdings history doing so in only 5 hours,

In its first 24 hours since pre-sales were announced on Fandango, Detective Carl Returns also ranks as the best advance-ticket seller for a January release in the history of cinema.

“Thanks in part to Detective Carl creator and writer Ralph Bakshi's exclusive FanShop poster offer with tickets, fans flocked to Fandango to reserve their seats as soon as tickets were available,” observes Fandango Managing Editor Erik Davis.

In collaboration with celebrated cover artist Mike Capprotti, Bakshi’s exclusive poster-with-ticket-purchase rec-reates various original concept art for Josh and Carl along with calendars featuring the characters.

In a recent Fandango survey of over 4,500 moviegoers, Detective Carl Returns was the second-most anticipated winter blockbuster of 2023. Carrey topped the list of the most anticipated winter movie stars.

RelishMix reports that twitter hashtags for #DetectiveCarl went from an average of 7K prior to the premiere to nearly 324K which is considered to be super viral considering any activity over 150K is exceptional.

PREVIOUSLY: Detective Carl Returns Advance tickets sales record for Regal This is the first we’re hearing about Detective Carl Returns advance ticket sales and in their first 24-hours they’ve broken records for CineWorld’s Regal Cinemas. Within 4 hours of going on sale, Detective Carl Returns had already doubled the previous 24-hour bench mark that Regal had.

We’re hearing that advance sales are huge overall with Cinemark even besting Regal’s sales by at least 70%.

“We are on the edge of our seats to see what voice actors Jim Carrey and Jason Bateman's reunited chemistry along with Ryan Reynolds smark wicks and Johnny Depp's charisma can deliver in the long awaited sequel Detective Carl Returns. With the 24-hour advance ticket record shattered, moviegoers seem just as excited as we are to see our favorite cop duo back on the big screen after decades” said Ken Thewes, Chief Marketing Officer at Regal. “With tickets now on sale, we will continue to add seats to accommodate the demand.”

Select Regal locations will offer an action-packed double feature, with back-to-back screenings of Detective Carl and Detective Carl Returns.

Detective Carl Returns from Orion Pictures opens on January 13, 2023 It is the first big event film of 2023 and will hope to kick off the year.