Joker Beats Deadpool To Become Highest-Grossing R-Rated Movie of All Time

Joker has surpassed Deadpool as the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time at the box office, earning its place in the “you f*cker” poster shared this morning by Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds. The film, which has remained a force to be reckoned with at the box office since its release at the beginning of the month, is heading into its fourth weekend and may reclaim the #1 spot it ceded to Maleficent: Mistress of Evil last weekend. The film is now sitting at $788.1 million at the worldwide box office, and is expected to become the first R-rated movie to cross the $800 million mark over the weekend.

It is doing all of this without interacting with the massive film market in China, where the movie is not expected to get a release. Of course, in spite of how large China looms in the global cinema marketplace now, it also never allowed the release of Deadpool there, so R-rated movies apparently don’t need it as much as big blockbusters.

The film, which drew early raves but became emrboiled in a controvery about the nature of its content, has remained an audience favorite for almost a month now. A small budget and outsized box office take will make Todd Phillips’s Joker one of the most successful films of the year, earning as much in profit as Marvel Studios’s Avengers: Infinity War, according to projections published yesterday.

The journey to huge box office success has been pretty seamless for Joker, which earned a huge opening weekend and has remained a force at the box office, putting up solid numbers even while movies like Zombieland: Double Tap and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil hit theaters and suck up a lot of the oxygen in the room.

Joker has made $250 million at the domestic box office. It’s made over $700 million worldwide and has a shot at becoming the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time. It is already Warner Bros.’s biggest release of 2019.

Joker is a grounded, R-rated origin story for Batman’s arch-nemesis, the Joker. Phoenix plays Arthur Fleck, who descends into madness and emerges as the clown-faced killer known as the Joker. The film also stars Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Glenn Fleshler, Bill Camp, Shea Whigham, and Marc Maron.

Joker is in theaters now. Upcoming DC Films movies include Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) on February 7, 2020, Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5, 2020, The Batman on June 25, 2021, The Suicide Squad on August 6, 2021, and Aquaman 2 on December 16, 2022.