Tavern Talk: Video Review - JOKER

Everyone knows the story of the week is that of Joker's success despite all of the "controversy" turning out to be a bunch of non-controversy and the film turning in the largest October domestic opening weekend of all-time and the fourth largest opening ever for an R-rated feature with $96 million. This final total, which is $2.5 million above Sunday estimates of $93.5 million, tops the $80.25 million opening of Venom from last year. Internationally, Joker debuted in seventy-three markets and brought in an estimated $140.5 million for a $234 million global debut. Keep in mind, this film was made for "only" $55 million which is insanely cheap by comic book/super hero standards (the other "cheap" comic book movie this year was DC's Shazam!) which can only mean Warner Bros. will be green-lighting several other character studies made as gritty dramas under the veil of comic book characters which-to be completely transparent-is more than fine by me as I found Joker to be fascinating in the best of ways and while I'm completely fine with Todd Phillips' film being a single one-off film as I mostly believe it should be, but I'm conflicted as I'm also dying to see Joaquin Phoenix reprise his role-more specifically in Matt Reeves' upcoming Batman film. While that may not feel anywhere within the realm of possibility Phoenix did tell Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers he's open to returning to the character. “I wouldn’t have thought of this as my dream role. But now, honestly, I can’t stop thinking about it,” Phoenix said. “I talked to Todd a lot about what else we might be able to do, in general, just working together, but also specifically, if there’s something else we can do with Joker that might be interesting.” And if the opening weekend numbers weren't enough to convince Phoenix of the interest in the character, opening weekend audiences scored the film a "B+" CinemaScore with the under thirty-five demo giving it an "A-". Joker currently sits at a strong 69% on RottenTomatoes with a 90% audience score. Opening weekend crowds were 64% male while 66% of the audience was under the age of thirty-five. While it will be interesting to see how Joker plays over the next few weeks as much competition continues to open (this week is Gemini Man, Addams Family and Jexi with Zombieland: Double Tap and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil opening next week) which will naturally bring down Joker's record-setting wide release in 4,374 locations, the widest ever for an October release. As always, be sure to follow the official TAVERN TALK by Initial Reaction YouTube channel as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter where you can find a new review (or reviews) each week!




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