The Joker ($1 Billion Worldwide Box Office)

joey con carne wrote:I hope the trailers are purposefully just showing us a guy slowly unravelling. I mean, if we didn't know this was about Joker, it would seem like this film just depicts a guy being dealt bad hands.

I hope somewhere in the middle of the movie, he just commits mass murder or something. Something so horrendous the audience is taken aback because it was just unexpected based on the trailer even though we know he's Joker.

Tyger wrote:It’s a Todd Phillips movie, but still true

WyldeMan wrote:

Tyger wrote:It’s a Todd Phillips movie, but still true

Oh damn, I have no idea what I typed Scorsese other than to say it's this Blue Dream I'm on.

I had just been commenting on the Irishman and I think I forgot where I was.

Rusty wrote:Scorsese was originally tapped to produce it, and had some initial contributions early in development with Phillips, but later backed out because of other obligations (likely The Irishman). I'm sure that's where the influence comes from. De Niro is in both films

People seem to be comparing the movie to three Scorsese/De Niro collabs - King of Comedy, Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull - about characters unraveling.

UltimateMarvel wrote:Did you guys hear about the "8 minutes standing ovation" for the movie? People are giving it positive reviews. I might have to check this one out in theaters.

joey con carne wrote:I just read that families of victims of the 2012 movie theater mass shooting have written letters to Warner Bros to protest this movie, calling the movie “dangerous”. Pretty sure there are more who find the movie offensive for one reason or another.

Sounds like this movie is going to be fucking good.

Update: With $788.1M worldwide, Warner Bros./Village Roadshow/Bron Studio’s Joker has just passed Fox’s Deadpool to become the highest grossing R-rated movie of all-time. That Marvel pic ended its run with $783M. By the end of the weekend, it’s expected that Joker‘s global tally will stand at $825M. At least a $900 final tally is expected with a profit after ancillaries at $464M.

Previous Sunday: Todd Phillips’ DC movie Joker is poised to become the highest grossing R-rated U.S. release of all-time heading toward a potential $900M in global ticket sales.

In its third weekend, the Warner Bros./Village Roadshow/Bron Studios’ release made $107M worldwide sending its overall total to $737.5M. The pic, which has won Joaquin Phoenix high praise for his turn as a twisted, social outcast and a top spot on awards prognosticators’ annual best actor list, just needs to beat Deadpool‘s $783M tally before it owns the global-grossing record for a R-rated U.S. release. Deadpool 2‘s $785M global gross includes $47M from its PG-13 holiday cut. Joker has already surpassed New Line’s It worldwide B.O. of $700.3M, and will soon outstrip Warner/VR’s The Matrix Reloaded‘s $742.1M WW. The only place left for Joker to trick and treat is in China.

There were extreme concerns from the FBI, U.S. military, LAPD, NYPD and local law enforcement around the country over Joker and its impact on America’s NRA-obsessed society. Thank God, people have just simply gone to the movies to watch the edgiest DC comic book film of-all-time. One rival distribution exec exclaimed today how Phoenix’s performance “is transcendent”, provoking the masses to go. Warner Bros. marketing department, which knew how to sell Joker before Phillips shot a frame, also gets huge credit here for positioning the pic as a hip, cool, prolific comic-book film you’ve never seen (as opposed to its severe Taxi Driver meets Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer sensibilities). By premiering the pic on the fall film festival circuit of Venice and TIFF, Warners promptly wowed reviewers who gave it a 68% on Rotten Tomatoes, enough to enable the pic to crossover to non-fanboys who are propelling Joker to $300M domestic. Joker will soon pass $500M overseas. Nancy breaks down this weekend’s Joker updates here.

UltimateMarvel wrote:That's impressive! Didn't think it would make this much given all the backlash. Guess all of that helped the movie. lol

Warner Bros/Village Roadshow/Bron Studios’ Joker is dancing across the $1B global box office mark today, becoming the first R-rated movie ever to the milestone.

It is Warner Bros.’ 7th film to cross $1 billion behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ($1.34B), Aquaman ($1.148B), Lord of the Rings: Return of the King ($1.12B), Dark Knight Rises ($1.08B), Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey ($1.01B), and Dark Knight ($1B). Among Warner Bros.-DC  titles, Joker is the 4th to clear the billion mark. A few weeks ago, Joker flew past The Matrix Reloaded and Deadpool 2 as the highest grossing R-rated pic of all-time.

In a stunning turn, the Todd Phillips-directed origins story joins The Dark Knight and Pirates Of The Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest as films to reach such a figure without the benefit of a China release during their original runs. The global cume through Thursday is $999.1M global with $317M stateside through yesterday.

Joker may be a DC character, but he’s been an absolute marvel since world premiering at the Venice Film Festival in late August. The Joaquin Phoenix-starrer was greeted by huzzahs on the Lido and went on to scoop the event’s top prize Golden Lion.

From there, Joker played the Toronto and New York Film Festivals, among others, and began overseas rollout on October 2 with domestic going two days later. At open, the movie smashed October records domestically, internationally and globally, taking the mantle from last year’s Venom. The overseas launch was $152.2M with a domestic opening record of $96.2M for $248.2M global.

Domestically, there had been early concern over theater safety given the films dark themes, though fortunately there were no major incidents. Also causing hand-wringing was that the movie could be frontloaded by fanboys and perhaps not perform like a superhero pic since it doesn’t fit the genre to which we’ve become accustomed. Ultimately, Joker was so in the zeitgeist, aided in part by its mass coverage coming out of Venice, that audiences turned out and continued to do so (the Bronx stairs that Arthur Fleck as Joker dances down have become a tourist attraction). Many say that Warner Bros. Studio marketing boss Blair Rich was very instrumental in believing and seeing how to sell Joker very early on before Phillips even shot a frame. High praise for Warner Domestic Distribution boss Jeff Goldstein for continually tapping the first weekend of October and expanding the marketplace, a place where Warners at point held the opening weekend record for the month with Gravity. Overall, Warner Bros. execs put their all in making Joker happen.

Holds have been astonishing and on October 25, Joker became the top-grossing R-rated movie ever worldwide, overtaking Deadpool. In early November, it became the first R-rated title to cross $900M global.

The fact that Joker has achieved such heights without China is another example of just how global the box office can be. This has been a year during which a handful of titles, though released in the Middle Kingdom, would still have gotten to $1B without it — think: Avengers: Endgame, Toy Story 4 and The Lion King. Even Aladdin would have gotten this close sans China.

Joker is an original reinvention of the familiar mythology and a unique standalone story that introduces Phoenix as Fleck, a man struggling to find his way in Gotham’s fractured society. A clown-for-hire by day, he aspires to be a stand-up comic at night, but finds the joke always seems to be on him. Caught in a cyclical existence between apathy and cruelty, Arthur makes one bad decision that brings about a chain reaction of escalating events.

The decision to world premiere a comic book at the Venice Film Festival was a bold risk by Warner Bros. Money-wise, it has certainly paid off (see here for Deadline’s dive into potential profits from a few weeks ago, a number that will be well north of a half billion).

Next will be to see how Joker fares during awards season. Venice has increasingly become a key launchpad — three of the last five Best Picture Oscar winners began their career on the Lido — and Warner Bros has had good luck from there in the past. Phoenix seems poised for a Best Actor nomination, and, as Pete Hammond has reported, the movie is making an impact with Academy members.

Tyger wrote:My friend bought this and had me watch it. It’s pretty much exactly what I expected, fucking hated it.

Tyger wrote:My friend bought this and had me watch it. It’s pretty much exactly what I expected, fucking hated it.

WyldeMan wrote:LOL, I was going to watch this today. I started watching several 2019 titles last night and Joker and Once Upon a Time were next on my list.

Tyger wrote:Everything. It might be a good movie, but as soon as you call it Joker and say Gotham City and Arkham and the Wayne’s, I’m going to judge it accordingly.