“Joker” Takes In P256-M in PH, Over $800-M Worldwide, Now the Highest-Grossing R-Rated Film of All-Time
MANILA, October 29, 2019 – Since it’s opening earlier this month, Warner Bros. Pictures, Village Roadshow Pictures and BRON Creative’s “Joker” has been a powerhouse across the globe, passing the milestone $800 million mark, making it the highest grossing R-rated film of all time worldwide at $804.4 million and counting. The announcement was made Oct. 26 by Toby Emmerich, Chairman, Warner Bros. Pictures Group.
The film’s impressive opening weekend totals made “Joker” the biggest October opener of all time in the US and worldwide, including the Philippines whose cumulative gross as of Oct. 26 is a whopping Php256 million, and still rising. “Joker” has also surpassed “Shazam!” as Warner Bros. Philippines’ top-grossing release of 2019.
In the US, the film has grossed $264.1 million in just three weeks and can boast numerous October records, including largest pre-show, and largest Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. It also earned the largest all-time opening for a drama, an R-rated DC film, a Todd Phillips film, a Joaquin Phoenix film, a Robert De Niro film, and a Village Roadshow film.
Internationally, “Joker” has garnered a total of $540.3 million and holds records for the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time (including the Philippines), the highest-grossing Warner Bros. film of all time in 14 markets, including Argentina and Mexico, and the highest-grossing DC film in 30 markets, including Italy, Spain, Russia, Argentina and Mexico.
In making the announcement, Emmerich stated, “Todd Phillips’s bold, creative vision is evident in every frame of ‘Joker,’ matched only by Joaquin Phoenix’s incomparable interpretation of this iconic character. What they and everyone who worked on this film created has clearly resonated with audiences worldwide. We congratulate them and our colleagues at DC on reaching this extraordinary benchmark, and I personally want to congratulate the entire Warner Bros. team on the roll-out of this film.”
About “Joker”
Forever alone in a crowd, Arthur Fleck seeks connection. Yet, as he trods the sooted Gotham City streets and rides the graffitied mass transit rails of a hostile town teeming with division and dissatisfaction, Arthur wears two masks. One, he paints on for his day job as a clown. The other he can never remove; it’s the guise he projects in a futile attempt to feel he’s a part of the world around him, and not the misunderstood man whom life is repeatedly beating down. Fatherless, Arthur has a fragile mother, arguably his best friend, who nicknamed him Happy, a moniker that’s fostered in Arthur a smile that hides the heartache beneath. But, when bullied by teens on the streets, taunted by suits on the subway, or simply teased by his fellow clowns at work, this social outlier only becomes even more out of sync with everyone around him.
Directed, co-written and produced by Todd Phillips, “Joker” is the filmmaker’s original vision of the infamous DC villain, an origin story infused with, but distinctly outside, the character’s more traditional mythologies. Phillips’ exploration of Arthur Fleck, who is indelibly portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, is of a man struggling to find his way in Gotham’s fractured society. Longing for any light to shine on him, he tries his hand as a stand-up comic, but finds the joke always seems to be on him. Caught in a cyclical existence between apathy and cruelty and, ultimately, betrayal, Arthur makes one bad decision after another that brings about a chain reaction of escalating events in this gritty, allegorical character study.
Three-time Oscar nominee Phoenix (“The Master,” “Walk the Line,” “Gladiator”) stars in the titular role alongside Oscar winner Robert De Niro (“Raging Bull,” “The Godfather: Part II”). The film also stars Zazie Beetz (TV’s “Atlanta,” “Deadpool 2”), Frances Conroy (TV’s “American Horror Story,” Hulu’s “Castle Rock”), Brett Cullen (“42,” Netflix’s “Narcos”), Glenn Fleshler (TV’s “Billions,” “Barry”), Bill Camp (“Red Sparrow,” “Molly’s Game”), Shea Whigham (“First Man,” “Kong: Skull Island”), Marc Maron (TV’s “Maron,” “GLOW”), Douglas Hodge (“Red Sparrow,” TV’s “Penny Dreadful”), Josh Pais (upcoming “Motherless Brooklyn,” “Going in Style”) and Leigh Gill (HBO’s “Game of Thrones”).
Warner Bros. Pictures Presents, in Association with Village Roadshow Pictures, in Association with BRON Creative, a Joint Effort Production, a Film by Todd Phillips, “Joker.” It is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.
Still playing in Philippine cinemas nationwide, “Joker” has been rated R-16 by the MTRCB for strong bloody violence, disturbing behavior, language and brief sexual images.
And if you want to see how the other previous record holders reacted to the news that Joker takes P256M and even more outside the country, you can check out this Ryan Reynolds related post.
