Warner Bros. can breathe some big sighs of relief. “Joker” has broken the record for October movie openings with $93.5 million. No one got hurt. It’s the fourth highest opening weekend for an R rated movie.
But “Joker” falls short of the $100 million it was hyped to achieve. Big deal. After a season of tough showings including “The Goldfinch,” Todd Phillips’ film is a ripping success. Joaquin Phoenix is guaranteed an Oscar nomination.
It’s not easy getting to $100 million. Look at “Hustlers,” which will arrive there later this week but not as fast as one might have thought a month ago.
Meanwhile, “Downton Abbey” has hit $73 million, still has a lot of life to it, and has shown that the audience is there for smart, adult movies and movies derived from higher end TV shows. Jon Hamm said No to a “Mad Men” movie, but plenty of other TV shows’ creators are probably scrambling to figure out a big screen revival.
