Joker the Most Profitable Comic Book Movie of All-Time and Tops $1 Billion

Joker the Most Profitable Comic Book Movie of All-Time and has crossed $1 Billion

Will Joker get anywhere close to The Dark Knight? This was a question we saw time and time again just a few short weeks ago. With The Dark Knight considered a classic and Joker seeing the return of the famous character, it was natural that comparisons would be drawn. However, all the conversation and debates are about to come to an end as Joker nears $1 billions in box office revenue.

In total, The Dark Knight only just creeped over the $1 billion mark while The Dark Knight Rises got closer to $1.1 billion. According to experts, the film will reach this special mark by the end of the week. This weekend, the film’s sixth weekend, Joker earned around $20 million which shows that it’s still moving at a good rate.

New Records for Joker

What does this all mean for the Joaquin Phoenix movie? Well, it will become the first ever R-rated movie to earn one billion dollars. This is impressive, but the achievement is even more special considering it has reached this feat with no help from China. Due to the subject matter, the Chinese government didn’t give the movie approval for public viewing which means the film bypassed a huge market.

For Warner Bros and the DC universe, this will be the fourth to join the billion-dollar club after The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, and Aquaman.

In addition to this, Joker is now the most profitable comic book movie in history. Considering the film cost just $62.5 million to make, the $1 billion haul means they have made their money back 16 TIMES over. In terms of competition, The Mask earned $350 million from $23 million back in 1994. Meanwhile, Venom spent $90 million only to then earn $854 million after release. Despite these, and even Deadpool, Batman, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Joker reigns supreme in this field.

Collapse for Terminator: Dark Fate

Just last week, we pondered whether or not the latest instalment in the Terminator franchise would perform in the box office. Arnold Schwarzenegger is back, Linda Hamilton is back, and there seemed to be excitement generating. However, it took just two weekends for us to get the answer, and it’s not good news.

Over the first ten days, Dark Fate has earned less than $50 million domestically. In the second weekend, it pulled in $11 million in the US – around half what Joker earned in its sixth weekend. With this in mind, perhaps it shows that they are trying to save a franchise that is already passed its sell-by date.

All things considered, it’s believed that the domestic run for Dark Fate will end with revenues of less than $70 million. To put this into context, Salvation made $65 million over the Memorial Day weekend in 2009 while Rise of the Machines took five days to earn this amount.

Joker thrives, Terminator collapses; just another week in the world of cinema!