Hours before Bray Wyatt’s Hell in a Cell match with Seth Rollins, WWE gave fans a glimpse at what the new Joker film would look like if “The Fiend” was prowling the streets of Gotham instead of the Clown Prince of Crime. The film, starring Joaquin Phoenix, turned out to be a massive box office hit with $93.5 million in its opening weekend. That’s the biggest opening for an October film in history and was just half a million dollars away from matching Justice League’s opening weekend from November 2017.
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The photo was uploaded to the WWE on FOX Twitter account, which launched as part of the promotion for Friday Night SmackDown’s move to the network.
Put on a happy face. #HIAC pic.twitter.com/kQpxdp3tM0
โ WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) October 6, 2019
As of Sunday the film is listed as “Certified Fresh” by Rotten Tomatoes with a 69% score with more than 400 reviews. ComicBook’s own Brandon Davis gave the film a perfect five-star rating, writing “Whether or not Joker is a social commentary on issues such as poverty or mental illness, a new and mysterious take on the best known DC Comics villain, or just another unforgettable piece of cinema which producer Martin Scorsese is attached to, you’ll need to see to believe it and, even then, you still might not believe it.”
During a recent interview Phoenix argued that the movie shouldn’t be classified as a simple superhero film.
“I wouldn’t quite classify this as like any genre,” Phoenix said during an interview. “I wouldn’t say it’s a superhero movie, or a studio movie or a โฆ It feels unique, and I think more than anything, and probably the most important thing, is Todd seems very passionate about it and very giving, and so that’s exciting.
“I think, underneath the excitement of these films, and the size of them, there are these incredible characters that are dealing with real-life struggles. And sometimes that is uncovered and exposed, and sometimes it isn’t, and so I always felt, like, there were characters in comics that were really interesting and deserve the opportunity to be kind of studied. And so I think that’s what Todd sees appealing about this idea.”
Wyatt debuted his demonic clown alter ego back in April after taking a months-long hiatus from the company. He has only wrestled one televised match while wearing the mask, but has taken out the likes of Mick Foley, Kurt Angle, Kane, Jerry Lawler, Finn Balor and Braun Strowman with his vicious Mandible Claw finisher.