Box Office: Where ‘Joker’ Stands Amongst All DC Movies – Forbes

You can fully expect Joker to finally eclipse that $1 billion mark this weekend at the worldwide box office, making it one of 44 movies in the history of cinema to do so.

But several other DC Comics films have hit that mark as well. Plus, many of them had much better runs in the U.S. than they had worldwide. So where does Joaquin Phoenix’s film ultimately rank in the DC universe?

Before we look at the grand DC rankings, let’s overview Joker’s accomplishments thus far.

An Overview

Joker got off to a great start on opening weekend back between Oct. 4-6, 2019 when it pulled in $96.2 million during its first three days in U.S. theaters. That was good enough to rank seventh amongst all DC Comics films:

1. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($166 million)
2. The Dark Knight Rises ($160.9 million)
3. The Dark Knight ($158.4 million)
4. Suicide Squad ($133.7 million)
5. Man of Steel ($116.6 million)
6. Wonder Woman ($103.3 million)
7. Joker ($96.2 million)
8. Justice League ($93.8 million)
9. Aquaman ($67.9 million)
10. Watchmen ($55.2 million)

When we account for ticket price inflation, Batman Forever and Batman Returns move into the top ten and Joker moves into the ninth slot for opening weekend domestic gross.

At this point, almost six full weeks into its run, the Todd Phillips film has accrued $313.5 million in U.S. theaters and a whopping $993.8 million worldwide. Its U.S. theater count has shrunk from 4,374 on opening weekend to just 2,806 this past week.

Domestic Gross

Let’s start with overall domestic gross. While Joker is poised to become one of the few movies in history to make $1 billion worldwide, there are still several DC films that have had much more impressive box office runs—and have achieved numbers that are out of reach for the Joaquin Phoenix vehicle.

Here’s the DC top ten:

1. The Dark Knight ($533.3 million)
2. The Dark Knight Rises ($448.1 million)
3. Wonder Woman ($412.6 million)
4. Aquaman ($335.1 million)
5. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($330.4 million)
6. Suicide Squad ($325.1 million)
7. Joker ($313.7 million)
8. Man of Steel ($291 million)
9. Batman ($251.2 million)
10. Justice League ($229 million)

Joker’s gross over this week should just eclipse $13 million, which would put its domestic gross at about $316 million. Week over week, we can expect the film’s U.S. gross to continue to drop between 30%-40%. That means over the next six weeks, a reasonable estimate for Joker’s domestic total should rest around $345 million. That would put Joker in the No. 4 position amongst all DC films, with no expectations of its catching Wonder Woman at $412.6 million.

Inflated Gross

Joker moves down the rankings when we account for ticket price inflation. Turns out, it hasn’t even cracked the top ten yet:

1. The Dark Knight ($669.2 million)
2. Batman ($567.2 million)
3. The Dark Knight Rises ($518.8 million)
4. Superman ($516.8 million)
5. Wonder Woman ($415.5 million)
6. Batman Forever ($381.2 million)
7. Batman Returns ($353.5 million)
8. Superman II ($350.6 million)
9. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($344.7 million)
10. Suicide Squad ($344 million)
11. Aquaman ($334.8 million)
12. Man of Steel ($317.6 million)
13. Joker ($249.4 million)

If Todd Phillips’ film were to spend about 20 weeks in theaters, we can expect its total domestic gross to hit around $350 million. That would put it somewhere in the 7-8 range for all DC Comics movies, between Superman II and Batman Forever.

Worldwide Gross

Joker has become an international hit, so its position amongst DC films is much better in this category:

1. Aquaman ($1.148 billion)
2. The Dark Knight Rises ($1.085 billion)
3. The Dark Knight ($1.005 billion)
4. Joker ($993.8 million)
5. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($873.6 million)
6. Wonder Woman ($821.8 million)
7. Suicide Squad ($746.8 million)
8. Man of Steel ($668 million)
9. Justice League ($657.9 million)
10. Batman ($411.5 million)

As the latest DC film continues to have strong legs at the global box office—even without a China release—it’s likely we’ll see Joker continue to run rampant until Frozen 2 comes in to steal the show.

It seems inevitable at this point that Joker will overtake The Dark Knight, but it’ll require some magic for Joker to reach The Dark Knight Rises’s $1.085 billion. Regardless, Joker has cemented itself as a top five DC film on the worldwide market.

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