According to one box office expert, a positive showing at the Venice Film Festival, favorable critical reception (
current Rotten Tomatoes score of 85%) and increasing social media chatter has resulted in a 27% increase in the opening weekend projections for Warner Bros.'
Joker.
Todd Philips' film is now tracking for a $103M USD opening, which would give it the record for the highest-grossing opening weekend for an October release (of any rating).
That estimate would also give the film a 4th place position on the list of
Biggest Opening Weekend for an R-Rated film. Currently,
Deadpool 2 occupies the top spot on the chart with a $132.4M USD debut.
Joker centers around the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, standalone fictional story not seen before on the big screen. Phillips' exploration of Arthur Fleck, who is indelibly portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, is of a man struggling to find his way in Gotham's fracturedsociety. A clown-for-hire by day, he aspires to be a stand-up comic at night...but finds the joke always seems to be on him. Caught in a cyclical existence between apathy and cruelty, Arthur makes one bad decision that brings about a chain reaction of escalating events in this gritty character study.