Ever since the first trailer for JOKER dropped the buzz has been slowly building to wild heights, becoming clear soon after the movie was destined to be a hit. The early projections for the movie have placed it on track for a terrific $80-$90 million opening weekend, and such a big opening is certainly in the cards after the movie broke the October box office preview record last night with a whopping $13.3 million.
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The total comes in ahead of the previous record-holder, last year’s VENOM, which made $10 million during its first Thursday night. That comic book movie opened at a higher-than-expected $80 million during its weekend, which is a good sign JOKER could blast past that for this weekend. By comparison, JOKER’s opening is more in line with the preview night for the first IT movie in 2017, which kicked things off with a $13.5 million preview night before heading to a staggering $123 million opening weekend.
Matching the opening of something like IT could be a bit of a reach for JOKER, but an opening near $100 million is certainly in the cards. The psychological drama based on the comic book character provides something audiences haven’t seen from the genre before, and while reviews aren’t exactly glowing (a current 72% on Rotten Tomatoes), critics seem to be unanimous that Joaquin Phoenix gives a must-see performance. Plus, VENOM was torn apart by critics, and we all saw how that movie’s box office performance turned out.
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The chatter around the movie has certainly been contentious, with some hailing it as a masterpiece and others citing it as irresponsible and lacking ambiguity. At the end of the day, this has made it one of the most-talked-about movies of the year, and given its focus on one of the most iconic villains in all of literature, it seems audiences are ready to show out for JOKER no matter what people are saying about it. For better or worse, it's become a movie that demands to be seen.
JOKER is in theaters today.