Who needs Batman? Warner Bros. is laughing all the way to the bank with Joker (read our review), the Todd Phillips-directed spinoff that stars Joaquin Phoenix as the title character.
Acting as a one-shot origin story of the popular DC villain, Joker set a new October record, opening to $93.5M here in the States. This is just the tip of the iceberg as Joker reportedly has also added $140.5M overseas for a global opening of $234M! I expect its full run to easily surpass $750M. Is it possible Warner Bros. would sequelize this one-shot? Maybe we get a Riddler, Scarecrow, Two-Face or Penguin origin story?
The success of Joker has kicked opens doors all across Hollywood as it signals to all of the studio heads that different is good. No, we don’t need to see constant retellings of the same stories. No, they don’t need to have an “anchor” hero inserted as a cameo to sell tickets. Much like Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man signaled to other studios that they can make a quality superhero movie, and just like The Dark Knight showed execs that children aren’t the only fans, Joker is historic in that it will kickstart a new subgenre of comic adaptations in which the studios aren’t universe building. Just focusing on telling a good story and people will show up.
We never reported on Rambo: Last Blood, but it added $3.55M this weekend for a $39.82 domestic total. Globally it sits at $64M on its reported $50M budget. This more than likely will not recoup.
In other WB news, New Line Cinema’s It: Chapter Two (read our review) has just crossed the $200M domestic mark and is slowly working its way towards $500M worldwide (it currently sits at $436.7M globally). At a $65M reported budget, this is a huge, huge hit for the studio who is more than likely going to find a way to make another. While this “franchise” was always pegged as a two-parter, it would be nice to see a prequel giving us more backstory on the origins of the elusive Pennywise.
Fox Searchlight’s horror-comedy Ready or Not, the critically acclaimed R-rated “Disney” film, has found even more money from international audiences and is now sitting at an impressive global total of $48M. Budgeted at a reported $6M, the film only needed $20-25M to recoup its small investment, which makes this a hit for Disney’s newly-acquired specialty studio. $50M is an impressive threshold to surpass.
Ready or Not, which is from V/H/S and Southbound filmmakers Radio Silence, follows a young bride (Samara Weaving) as she joins her new husband’s (Mark O’Brien) rich, eccentric family (Adam Brody, Henry Czerny, Andie MacDowell) in a time-honored tradition that turns into a lethal game with everyone fighting for their survival.
After almost being released directly to VOD/DVD in 2016, 47 Meters Down was thrown into the water in the middle of the summer of 2017. It opened to $11M and swam its way to an incredible $44M. This was a huge hit for the relatively unknown Entertainment Studios, who quickly promoted plans for a sequel.
As I wrote previously, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged was released at the tail end of summer and it took a toll on the film’s box office opening, which was just $9M. With double the budget as the first, the $12.5M didn’t look recoupable, until international numbers started to trickle in. While it has taken some time, Uncaged has managed to swim its way to $35M globally.
While Bloody Disgusting’s William Bibbiani wasn’t a huge fan of 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, I found it to be a thrilling underwater nightmare with more than a handful of jump-out-of-your-seat scares. In fact, it felt just like a slasher movie (Director Johannes Roberts said it’s “almost like a John Carpenter movie,” adding that the film boasted “Michael Myers sharks.“)
“The film tells the story of four teens diving in a ruined underwater city, who quickly find themselves in a watery hell as their adventure turns to horror when they learn they are not alone in the submerged caves. As they swim deeper into the claustrophobic labyrinth of caves they enter the territory of the deadliest shark species in the ocean.”
