Joker starring Joaquin Phoenix is enjoying a wild box office. After passing $700 million, the movie accomplished what was then thought inevitable. Joker has beaten Deadpool to become the highest grossing R-rated movie of all time. In fact, as of this weekend, Joker has surpassed $800 million in global box office sales beating the worldwide total of Wonder Woman, once regarded as the DCEU’s most successful film.
Joker edged out the children friendly Maleficent sequel by Disney, netting an estimated $18.9 million over the weekend in the US. This takes its domestic total to $277 million and with an international tally of $571.5 million, Joker is sitting with a worldwide gross of $849 million. That’s above the $821 million that Wonder Woman earned in its entire lifetime and that too, in nearly a third (possibly a fourth) of the budget allotted to Diana Prince’s solo outing.
In the process, Joker is smashing several records. The biggest is attaining the status of the highest grossing R-rated movie of all time beating Deadpool, a feat for which it received a congratulatory post from Ryan Reynolds himself, in true R-rated style. It’s also currently the 17th highest grossing comic book movie worldwide.
The numbers certainly get interesting when you dig into DC Comics based films. In that comparison, Joker ranks fifth after Aquaman, followed by Nolan’s Dark Knight films and finally Batman v Superman, which it should easily surpass by the week’s end to reach fourth. The crazy question now is: can Joker stretch its box office charm and crack $1 billion at the box office on a paltry $55 million budget?
The answer to that question at this point is a mark of uncertainty, although in all likelihood, the chances of it happening are slim (but not impossible). This week will see the release of Terminator: Dark Fate, followed by Doctor Sleep next week and those should definitely start eating into Joker‘s screens and numbers. Joker could probably touch $900 million and stop there, or hold up throughout November and reach $1 billion by a small marketing push along with a stroke of luck.
Whatever its final tally ends up being, it cannot be understated how much of a phenomenal run Joker has had at the box office. After all totals are factored in, Joker is expected to bring Warner Bros. a net profit of $450 million, while still leaving money to be shared with its co-financers. That is a huge number considering movies like Avengers: Infinity War manage a $500 to $600 million profit after grossing $2 billion worldwide and being made on a budget almost 5-6 times that of Joker.
Joker is still running in theaters now so catch it while you still can.
