Joker Movie Opens to $5.4 Million Box Office Internationally
Joker earned $5.4 million from four territories since opening in international markets on [...]
Joker earned $5.4 million from four territories since opening in international markets on Wednesday, THR reports. Warner Bros.' prequel centered around the infamous Batman villain won its highest amount in Korea, released during a public holiday, where Joker scored $2.25 million. The Todd Phillips-directed drama opened with $846,000 in Indonesia and won another $170,000 in Belgium. Joker will be screened in a total of 73 markets by the end of the weekend following Thursday rollouts in Hong Kong, Italy and Russia on. In North America, where Joker is now playing, the DC Comics-inspired film is expected to score a record-breaking opening weekend projected to surpass $80 million.
"Online chatter is embracing the hype, and our metrics now point to this clearly being the 'water cooler' type of movie that inspires interest from a variety of demographics — not unlike another creepy clown movie from Warner Bros. in September 2017," box office analyst Shawn Robbins said of Joker's potential performance, pointing to WB's horror hit It, which stands as the highest-grossing horror film with $700 million worldwide. "We remain cautious in expectations for staying power as the R-rated film is likely to be divisive among general audiences, but odds at becoming the first-ever $100 million+ opener in October history look increasingly favorable."
Venom currently holds the record October opening at $80.3m, beating out 2013's George Clooney and Sandra Bullock starrer Gravity when the PG-13 Spider-Man spinoff swung into theaters a year ago. Two weeks later, the Jamie Lee Curtis-led Halloween scored the second-best October opening with $76.2m.
On Thursday, ticket retailer Fandango reported Joker outpaced Venom and Halloween as its biggest October preseller. Fandango also noted Joker outsold recent DC films Shazam!, Aquaman and Wonder Woman at the same point in the Fandango sales cycle. After premiering on Rotten Tomatoes on Aug. 31 with an 86% fresh — with reviews counted from its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where Joker was received with an eight-minute standing ovation before being awarded the festival's top prize, the Golden Lion — Joker on Thursday temporarily lost its "certified fresh" designation on the review aggregator website. With 259 reviews counted, the controversial film is once again certified fresh at 70%.
Amid worries the film could spark real-life violence, Warner Bros. said in a statement that "neither the fictional character Joker, nor the film, is an endorsement of real-world violence of any kind. It is not the intention of the film, the filmmakers or the studio to hold this character up as a hero."
Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy and Robert De Niro, Joker is now playing.
