Last weekend, Joker became the first R-rated film in history to pass $1 billion mark at the global box office. Interestingly, Todd Phillips’ thriller achieved this without access to the Chinese market – a rare feat these days. As Deadline reports, Joker is only the seventh film by Warner Bros. (and a fourth of the studio’s DC titles) to pass a $1 billion milestone. Others are Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ($1.34 billion), Aquaman ($1.14 billion), Lord of the Rings: Return of the King ($1.12 billion), Dark Knight Rises ($1.08 billion), Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey ($1.01 billion), and Dark Knight ($1 billion). With a production cost of around $55 million, Joker is also the cheapest of the seven.
Since it premiered at this year’s Venice Film Festival, Joker keeps drawing attention for its grimy, naturalistic approach to the origin story of the most iconic Batman villain. While the movie itself was both criticized and praised, Joaquin Phoenix was pretty much universally lauded for his performance as the ill-fated Arthur Fleck/Joker. The movie’s success at the box office started speculations about the possible sequel. In a recent talk with L. A. Times, both Phillips and Phoenix expressed tentative interest in the idea. But as Phillips said: “(I)t couldn’t just be this wild and crazy movie about the ‘Clown Prince of Crime.’ It would have to have some thematic resonance in a similar way that this does. Because I think that’s ultimately why the movie connected, it’s what’s going on underneath.”
