Despite a slew of controversy surrounding the film, Todd Phillip's Joker is already breaking box office records.
Coming in at a whopping $13.3 million, the film's theatrical debut in North America has officially broken October's record for a Thursday night premiere, surpassing the previous record-holder of Venom, which opened last October to a total of $10 million. This news also comes after Joker broke both Venom and Halloween's October presale records on online ticketing site Fandango after going on sale in late September.
On top of surpassing Venom's October record, Joker was recently declared "Certified Fresh" by Rotten Tomatoes with a score of 69%, beating Venom's "Rotten" score, which currently sits at 29%. Although it remains to be seen whether the film will overtake Venom's overall box office total of $856.1 million, the future of the villainous origin film seems quite promising.
Directed by Todd Phillips, Joker stars Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Bill Camp, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Glenn Fleshler, Douglas Hodge, Marc Maron, Josh Pais and Shea Whigham. The film arrives in theaters Oct. 4.
(via Variety)