Despite all of the controversy surrounding the film, Joker just keeps raking in cash. Only eleven days into its domestic theatrical run, the record-setting movie has managed to pull in over $200 million at the box office. The flick hauled in $55 million in its second weekend to top the charts yet again and that figure gives it the biggest second weekend for any October feature in cinematic history, easily blowing past the previous $43.1 million set by Gravity back in 2013.
The critically acclaimed masterpiece made a whopping $96 million during its opening weekend. Some expected that the debut would be sullied by all of the negativity swirling around the film’s depictions of violence, but Joker still managed to surpass the lofty expectations set for it by analysts. The impressive opening easily trounced the previous October record set by Venom last year and it’s now expected to become the highest-grossing feature ever to premiere during the spooky tenth month of the year.
The monstrous debut was also a career-best for many of the big names involved. Director Todd Phillips beat his previous personal mark of $85.9 million for The Hangover 2 and star Joaquin Phoenix blew away the $60.1 million that Signs made during its first few days way back in 2002. Both men have come under fire for their interesting answers (or lack thereof) to questions during the press junket, but clearly their antics haven’t affected the bottom line at all.
Warner Bros. has to be thankful for that. The ambitious movie is their highest-grossing project of 2019 thus far and is even beginning to drum up some Oscar buzz. The studio is now understandably pushing for a sequel to Joker. As long as Phoenix is still involved, it’s definitely something we want to see happen, but hopefully this time, they’ll exclude any songs sung by convicted pedophiles.