Warner Bros’ much talked about ‘Joker’ continued to laugh off competition as it stayed firm at number one atop this weekends box office.
In fact, its $55M second weekend, is the largest October has ever seen, beating out Alfonso Cuaron’s Oscar-winning ‘Gravity’ and its $43.2M haul in 2013. The world’s most talked-about movie at the moment also drew in around $123.7M internationally, pushing it near $550M worldwide after 12 days, and now possibly with its sights set on Ryan Reynolds’ ‘Deadpool’ and its global R-rated record of $783M.
The first of this weekend’s three newcomers that have fallen victim to the juggernaut that is ‘Joker’ is UAR’s animated take on classic comedy, ‘The Addams Family’. Boasting a stellar voice cast including Charlize Theron and Oscar Isaac, the film scored a solid $30M over its first three days, not bad considering not only ‘Joker’ and its dominance, but also that this film is designed to be around for a number of weeks in the lead up to Halloween.
In third place and undoubtedly the biggest loser of the week (and arguably one of the biggest of the year) is Paramount’s ‘Gemini Man’. The Will Smith starring action-thriller managed a measly $20.5M since it’s Friday release, coupled with an international tally of $39M, which, for a film with a reported $138M budget, represents a huge defeat for the studio.
In fourth this week is another animated feature, this time from Universal, as ‘Abominable’ (in its third weekend) brought home just over $6M, bringing its domestic standing to just shy of $50M. Meanwhile, overseas the film brought in another $15M, meaning all in all the movie now stands at $108M worldwide.
In fifth place is ever steady player ‘Downton Abbey’, adding $4.9M to its domestic total (now at $82M) and $4.1M overseas ($70M overall) bringing it’s international total to $152.7M.
Unable to break the top five was Lionsgate’s R-rated, Adam Devine starring comedy, ‘Jexi’, making its bow to only $3.1M from over 2000 locations.
One of the biggest stories of the weekend came in the form of a limited release. Bong-Joon Ho’s (Snowpiercer) Oscar hopeful and critically acclaimed ‘Parasite’, debuted in just three locations across New York and LA, to the tune of over $376,000.
Next week sees the release of two movies that will hope to break the top three and siphon off a piece of ‘Joker’s box office. Firstly, Disney return after a mini hiatus with a sequel, ‘Maleficent: Mistress of Evil,’ whilst Sony also have a sequel of their own, ‘Zombieland: Double Tap,’ some ten years after the original hit screens.
Meanwhile, next week should also be interesting in the way of limited releases, as two more Oscar contenders, Taika Waititi and Fox Searchlight’s anti-hate satire ‘Jojo Rabbit’ and A24’s fantasy horror ‘The Lighthouse’ starring Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe.
1. Joker – $55M ($193M Total)
2. The Addams Family – $30M
3. Gemini Man – $20M
4. Abominable – $6.2M ($48M)
5. Downton Abbey – $4.9M ($83M)
6. Hustlers – $3.9M ($98M)
7. Judy – $3.3M ($15M)
8. It: Chapter Two – $3.2M ($207M)
9. Jexi – $3.1M
10. Ad Astra – $2M ($47M)
The ‘Smile’ franchise has a new director. David Bruckner, who made “The Night House” and the 2022 “Hellraiser” reboot, has been hired to direct “Smile 3” for Paramount.