Joker Tracking to Beat Venom's Box Office Record

Comic book movies are undergoing a dark and twisted turn in October when DC and Warner Bros. release Todd Phillips' Joker into theaters. The R-rated character study has been an immensely divisive topic online, especially after it received rave reviews from its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, eventually winning the event's top award. Well the buzz and discourse surrounding Joker has only propelled the hype for its theatrical release next month. Despite its adult rating and subject matter, Joker is looking t dethrone Sony's Venom with the highest-grossing opening weekend in October box office history.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Joker is tracking for a domestic opening weekend haul of over $82 million. That estimate comes from the industry-leading NRG, while some services have the debut as low as $77 million or as high as $87 million.

If Joker does turn in an opening weekend in line with NRG's projections, it will break the record for biggest domestic opening weekend in October. The current record-holder is Venom, Tom Hardy's PG-13 anti-hero romp that, in spite of its poor critical reviews, opened to $80.2 million in its opening weekend. Venom went on to earn more than $856 million at the global box office, a substantial hit for its $100 million budget.

Things look even more promising for Joker when you consider the budget. The film was made for about half of Venom's overall cost, so pulling in the same domestic numbers will be huge. The only potential drawback for Joker is that the international audience may not be as engaged given its R-rating. Regardless, it'll have no problems making its money back.

Joker doesn't have any substantial competition in its first weekend in theaters, helping result in the box office sweep. Its second weekend will bring its first true adversary in the Will Smith-starring sci-fi/thriller Gemini Man, from director Ang Lee. The film is currently eyeing a debut between $28 million and $30 million.

How much money do you think Joker will make in its opening weekend? Are you going to be seeing it in theaters? Let us know in the comments!

Joker opens in theaters on October 4th.