For the longest time, Joker was thought to be an incredibly risky proposition. An R-rated origin story for the Clown Prince of Crime directed by the man behind the Hangover trilogy hardly seemed like an easy sell at the box office, despite the casting of the always-reliable Joaquin Phoenix in the lead role.
However, the buzz surrounding the project continued to grow, and by the time Joker finally hit theaters it was riding a wave of momentum and became a complete juggernaut, smashing records for the month of October on its way to earning over $600m globally after less than two weeks. Following the disappointment of Justice League, Warner Bros. approached Joker with a great deal of trepidation, and it looks like the studio’s decision has backfired in the wake of the movie’s success now that they’ve been forced to share the profits.
A recent report revealed that Warner Bros. saw Joker as such a risk that they co-financed the production with Bron Studios and Village Roadshow in an effort to minimize their losses should the movie turn out to be a disappointment. This made it cheaper to produce on Warner’s part, but now that the $55m psychological thriller has already earned over ten times its production budget, the studio are missing out on what will ultimately be hundreds of millions of dollars in profits.
Still, following recent hits like Aquaman, Shazam! and now Joker, Warner Bros.’ DC-related properties are turning out to be a lot more profitable than usual and there’s little chance that the studio will make the same mistake again anytime soon after losing out on a massive windfall thanks to the incredible success of Arthur Fleck’s origin story.