Joker Set to Beat Deadpool as Highest-Grossing R-Rated Movie of All Time
Looks like Joaquin Phoenix‘s Joker is getting the last laugh.
After the movie generated a bit of controversy in the weeks leading up to its release, audiences have stuck with Joker, giving it a massive global total of $737.5 million after three weekends. This puts the movie just behind 2016’s Deadpool as the highest-earning R rated movie of all time, with the Ryan Reynolds starrer holding on to the title at $783 million.
RELATED: Joaquin Phoenix Defends Joker as Families of Shooting Victims Voice Fears Over Violent Film
Joker is now set to eclipse that with weeks still left in its theater run. The movie, directed by Todd Phillips, raked in over $29 million just this past weekend.
Joker has been praised by critics and received the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival in late August before premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival to even more buzz.
While the film is focused on a comic book character, the story itself is more of a character study of a man who descends into madness than a superhero tentpole movie.
After the film’s Toronto International Film Festival premiere earlier this month, Collider’s Perri Nemiroff wrote, “#Joker is one of the most unnerving movies I’ve seen in years. Joaquin Phoenix is astounding – the physicality of his work is especially impressive. It’s very well made across the board but I also found it very upsetting & right now I can’t shake that. Need to sit with this more.”
“I saw #Joker — and it is unlike anything before it,” Brandon Davis of ComicBook.com tweeted. “The movie is dark, thrilling, and chilling. An insane masterpiece. The movie absolutely transcends being a comic book film and acts as a character study which, at times, will make audiences uncomfortable in wild ways.”
Joker is out now.
