'Joker' Defies Critics, Smashes Records, And Earns $300M In Biggest October Opening Ever

Despite dire box office predictions from petulant media critics, Warner Brothers’ “Joker” has already broken nine box office records in four days.

The film’s departure from standard superhero fare about one-dimensional characters in skintight pants saving the world from mean white men has been cited as a key reason for its success.

“Joker” is a psychological thriller and character study of an emotionally damaged white male living in an unfeeling dystopia society – a type of film rarely seen in the age of woke capitalism.

Joaquin Phoenix’s compelling portrayal of the birth of Batman’s nemesis has brought moviegoers to the theaters in droves. The film is projected to pass $300 million in gross revenue by late Monday and has broken nine separate box office records.

The records set by Joker include biggest all-time October opening weekend ($96 million), Biggest October international opening weekend ($140.5 million), biggest IMAX opening milestone in October ($16.4 million), and widest October all-time release (4,374 theaters), amongst several others.

As Deadline reported Monday:

More box office records to add to Joker‘s list: The Todd Phillips-directed Warner Bros./DC movie earned $9.72M yesterday, repping the best Monday in October for a movie. Joker beats Venom‘s Monday record from last year of $9.63M. The pic’s four-day run including previews stands at $105.9M.

Joker also beats September Monday B.O. record, which is owned by New Line/Warner Bros.’ It ($8.76M). Joker also blows away the Mondays of R-rated Logan ($7.2M) and DC’s PG-13 pic Justice League ($7.5M).

Even more impressive was the fact that yesterday was a non-holiday for Joker‘s turnstile action. Last year at this time, Venom made its moola on a Columbus Day Monday. Between K-12 and colleges yesterday, 11% schools were off according to Comscore. Next Monday, which is Columbus Day Monday, that combined figure jumps to 60% on break.

To date, Joker scored the best opening in October ($96.2M), career domestic record debut highs for Phillips, Joaquin Phoenix and Robert De Niro, as well as the best overseas ($152.2M) and worldwide opener ever for October ($248.2M). Joker repped the biggest opening weekend of all time for a DC movie in 9 markets including Holland, Italy ($7M), Japan ($7M), Korea ($16.1M) and Chile. Also, domestic Thursday previews for the pic were the best October has ever seen with $13.3M. Joker, stateside, is the widest release ever at 4,374 theaters, ahead of Venom‘s 4,350 count.

It remains to seen if Hollywood will ignore “Joker” during awards season because of media outrage, or if the gritty origin story will start a new trend in superhero films of making them actually watchable.