Box Office: ‘Joker’ Tops Friday With Record $40 Million Opening Day - Forbes

'Joker'

Warner Bros.

Joker earned a bigger opening day than Logan, Wonder Woman, Venom and, yes, Justice League.

Once again, the various controversies and hand-wringing that makes up much of online entertainment media discourse, be it on social media or in actual online posts and articles, do not matter to the general consumer. If general audiences think that splashy Freddie Mercury biopic looks like a good time at the movies, then they won’t care about whether Bohemian Rhapsody is appropriately LGBTQIA-friendly, why the director got fired from the movie or what he may have done in his free time. If audiences want to see Captain Marvel, it won’t matter if online YouTube video folks flood the Internet with “Brie Larson is evil because… diversity!” videos which rack up copious views from like minded folks. If audiences want to see a grimdark origin story about the Joker, then they’ll damn well show up.  

It doesn’t matter how much arbitrary outrage is ginned up concerning an R-rated Joker movie, including rumors and speculation about its ability to turn its viewers into mass murderers, a month prior to its release. The Todd Phillips flick had two strong theatrical trailers which played with the likes of It Chapter Two and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (two big adult-skewing releases), and it’s based on the most popular fictional supervillain in recent history. It’s part of DC Films, a once-ridiculed brand that’s been on a streak (Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Shazam!) of well-liked and well-received solo superhero movies. Even the poorly reviewed flicks (Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Justice League) pulled in $93-$166 million opening weekends. Audiences like these characters, at least on opening weekend.

'Joker'

Warner Bros.

Even if the critical consensus didn’t match the hoopla of its Golden Lion-winning Venice Film Festival debut in late August, the reviews were mostly positive right up until opening night. Moreover, audiences wanted to see a dark, grimy, occasionally violent Joker origin story, featuring a prestigious actor (Joaquin Phillips) in the title role, and nothing was going to stop them. Yes, the film scored a $39.9 million opening day gross, $13.3 million (32%) of which came from Thursday previews. That’s a bigger opening day than Venom ($32 million Friday/$10 million Thursday), Logan ($33 million/$9.5 million) and Justice League ($38 million/$13.5 million). An R-rated, action-lite Joker flick aimed at older fans and adult moviegoers had a bigger opening day (with or without inflation) than Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon’s heavily retooled Justice League movie.  

Joker is a slow, fx-lite, occasionally violent and generally nihilistic character study that plays like a period piece update on The King of Comedy, Taxi Driver and Observe and Report, so, a B+ from Cinemascore notwithstanding, the weekend may be comparatively frontloaded compared to a conventional superhero movie. But with a $60 million budget and a $39.9 million opening day, Warner Bros. and friends can afford to have the film flame out like (for example) Watchmen or Green Lantern. That said, the word of mouth is at least somewhat positive thus far. Even a multiplier on par with Batman v Superman ($166 million from an $81 million Friday), Suicide Squad ($133 million/$65 million), The Dark Knight Rises ($160 million/$75 million) or Man of Steel ($128 million/$56 million) positions the opening weekend between $81 million and $92 million.  

'Joker'

Warner Bros.

Anything over $80.226 million puts it past Venom and gives it the third-biggest September/October launch behind only WB’s September debuts of It ($123 million in 2017) and It Chapter Two ($91 million in 2019). If it legs out this weekend like Venom, Justice League or Guardians of the Galaxy (around 2.45x), it’ll end Sunday night with between $96 million and $99 million, which will be the third-biggest (sans inflation) R-rated opening behind It, Deadpool ($132 million in 2016) and Deadpool 2 ($128 million in 2018). If you’re wondering about inflation, Hannibal’s $58 million opening in 2001 or 300’s $70 million debut in 2007 would both be around $92 million today. Anything over $92.5 million would pass the Fri-Sun frame of Sony’s Spider-Man: Far From Home (which opened on a Tuesday) for the biggest non-Disney debut of the year.

If there’s a lesson there, beyond the whole “audiences will show up for superhero/supervillain movies no matter what form they take if they like the characters in question” variable, is that DC Films, like Marvel, does best when it colors a little bit outside the lines. Captain Marvel and Black Panther both opened bigger than Spider-Man: Far from Home and Thor: Ragnarok. Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (both of which opened with over/under $95 million in 2014) showed that Marvel could apply its formulas to almost any character and genre and audiences would show up. Aquaman ($1.155 billion) nearly doubled the global grosses of Justice League ($659 million) while Wonder Woman earned $413 million domestic, showing it had more to offer to fans than just Batman and Superman.

'Joker'

Warner Bros.

Marvel’s one bomb, The Incredible Hulk, was heavily structured (in response to Ang Lee’s Hulk) to be as conventionally mainstream as possible. WB’s expensive efforts to refashion Justice League into, in terms of structure and tone, into Diet Avengers, was a fatal error as the film just resembled second-hand super heroics. This goes for other franchises as well, be it Star Wars (where the painfully conventional Solo: A Star Wars Story was ignored) or Fantastic Beasts (which may have fatally wounded itself by emphasizing worldbuilding and sequel set-up over character). Heck, Fox’s most successful X-Men movies have been the “everybody into the pool” sci-fi spectacular (Days of Future Past) and the three R-rated spin-off flicks (Deadpool, Logan and Deadpool 2). When you already have the audience’s attention, you can afford to challenge them.

Joker exemplifies what Warner Bros. does best. The Todd Phillips-directed flick is a comic book movie within an established brand. However, it’s also (sans IP) a deeply uncommercial movie with limited appeal. As such, its (thus far) success puts it alongside Magic Mike, The Conjuring, American Sniper, It and A Star is Born as the Dream Factory turning something that isn’t quite a stereotypical tentpole into a genuine event movie. Considering their successes last year with stand-alone biggies (The Meg, Crazy Rich Asians, Ready Player One) versus their struggles this year with franchise flicks (Godzilla: King of the Monsters, The LEGO Movie 2, Detective Pikachu), I’d argue WB should look to what worked last year and comparatively what is working this year. Or maybe they really should have added Pennywise to The LEGO Movie 2.

Natalie Portman in 'Lucy in the Sky'

Fox Searchlight

While Joker was the only new wide release in North America, there were a few notable platform openings. Specifically, Fox Searchlight released Noah Hawley’s poorly-reviewed Lucy in the Sky into 37 theaters on Friday to poor results. The Natalie Portman/Jon Hamm drama, about an astronaut who has trouble adjusting to life on Earth after she returns from space, earned just $19,000 on Friday for a likely $54,000 opening weekend. That is a poor $1,468 per-theater average and doesn’t bode well for either awards glory (Portman is dynamite, per usual) or further expansion. I liked the movie just enough to recommend it as both an acting treat and as a “regular person descends into madness through happenstance” character study not unlike the killer clown movie.

Pedro Almodóvar’s critically-acclaimed Pain and Glory opened four theaters on Friday courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics. The Antonio Banderas/Penelope Cruz drama, about an aging filmmaker coming to terms with his legacy. In that sense, it seems to be a kind of “subtext made text” alternative to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and The Irishman, but I digress. It has earned awards buzz for all the major players, especially the inexplicably never-nominated (for an Oscar) Banderas. It grossed $40,000 yesterday. That positions the Spanish-language drama for a $135,000 opening, and a promising $33,793 per-theater average. I’m seeing Gemini Man on Monday night and my wife promised that she will pick up the kids so I can catch an afternoon showing of this one at the Landmark.

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https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2019/10/05/joker-friday-box-office-40m-justice-league-venom-logan-wonder-woman-dc-films-joaquin-phillips-todd-phillips/

2019-10-05 14:24:47Z

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