Last week, Todd Phillips’ Joker got off to a phenomenally strong start at the domestic box office, setting a new record for biggest October opening with its $96.2 million haul, and in the days since, it seems the Clown Prince of Crime’s solo outing has done pretty well in sustaining its commercial momentum.
BoxOfficeGuru.com founder and editor Gitesh Pandya reports that Joker’s box office numbers dropped a “reasonable” 14% from Wednesday to Thursday, ending its first full week with a domestic total of $137.7 million. This sets a first-week record for October releases, beating the previous record-holder Venom by 29%. Pandya adds that the film is expected to stay number one at the box office on its second weekend.
All in all, it looks like Joker is currently on course to be DC’s highest grossing release since 2017’s Wonder Woman, which managed a domestic total of $147.8 million in its first week and ended its run with $412.6 million.
Things aren’t going too badly for Phillips’ film on a global level, either. At the time of writing, Joker’s worldwide total sits at $289.9 million, suggesting that the pic is well on its way to becoming one of DC’s most profitable features to date.
All the while, the exhausting discourse around Joker continues to unfold, with fresh debates and think pieces emerging every day. No doubt all this controversy has helped boost the film’s numbers at the box office, but it’ll be interesting to see just how well this attention can keep the movie afloat in the coming weeks.
In any case, it’s clear that the DC brand is commercially in the strongest position it’s been in for a long time, and we’ll find out if Warner Bros. can sustain this success when Birds of Prey hits theaters on February 7th, 2020.