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Joker Becomes The Most Profitable Comic Book Movie Of All-Time

No, this is not click bait! After it’s incredible 5 week run at the box office since its October release, Joker has become the most profitable comic book film of all time.

How is this possible with Avengers: Endgame becoming the highest grossing film of all time this past summer? The answer is quite simple, profit margin!

With $304.2 million in North America after five weeks in theaters, Joker’s new world wide box office total is around $953 million. It is assumed that if the percentage drops throughout its 5 week run holds, it will be $957 million by tonight. That will be 15.3x its $62.5 million production budget, which will make the Todd Phillips-directed and Joaquin Phoenix-starring drama more profitable, in terms of budget versus global gross, than Jim Carrey’s The Mask ($351 million on a $23 million budget in 1994).  Reported by Forbes,

The most profitable “big” comic book movies are Venom ($854 million on a $90 million budget), Batman ($411 million/$35 million), Deadpool ($783 million/$58 million), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ($200 million/$13.5 million), The Mask ($351 million/$23 million) and now Joker ($956 million/$62.5 million).

That means DC Films and Warner Bros.’ Joker is the most profitable comic book movie of all time.

The most impressive thing about this accomplishment is that the film is that’s pulling top-tier blockbuster business without relying on China.Along with the fact that the film has an R-rating, the sucess of the film is unseen for the genre. Joker is the  third-cheapest $900 million grosser of all time after Bohemian Rhapsody ($905 million on a $52 million budget) and The Lion King ($968 million on a $55 million budget in 1994). When the film becomes the first R-rated film to reach one billion worldwide in the few weeks, it will be the cheapest movie to do so, with a budget just under the $63 million spent by Jurassic Park back in 1993.

David Gonzalez
David Gonzalez is the founder and chief film critic of The Cinematic Reel (formally Reel Talk Inc.) and host of the Reel Chronicles and Chop Talk podcasts. As a Cuban American independent film critic, David writes fair and diverse criticism covering movies of all genres and spotlighting minority voices through Reel Talk. David has covered and reviewed films at Tribeca, TIFF, NYFF, Sundance, SXSW, and several other film festivals. He is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-Approved Critic and a member of the Latino Entertainment Journalists Association (LEJA), New York Film Critics Online, Hollywood Film Critics Association, the North American Film Critic Association and the International Film Society Critics Association. As an avid film collector and awards watcher, David's finger is always on the industry's pulse. David informs and educates with knowledgeable and exciting content and has become a trusted resource for readers and listeners alike. Email him at david@reeltalkinc.com or follow him on Twitter and Instagram @reeltalkinc.

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