‘Joker’ Becomes First R-Rated Movie Ever to Top $1 Billion at the Box Office

The Clown Prince of Crime keeps breaking records.

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Warner Bros

For all the angst over Joker, Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix are winning, in the end.

According to Deadline, the gritty, Scorsese-like take on the supervillain’s origin story topped the $1 billion mark on November 15. That made it the seventh Warner Bros. movie to cross that mark and the first R-rated movie ever to join the billion-dollar-plus club. 

Joaquin Phoenix

By Thanksgiving 2019, Joker should end up the lowest-budgeted movie to ever top $1 billion in profit—if it hasn’t already reached that mark.

Deadline notes another remarkable stat which underscores just how mind-blowingly huge this movie has been, as “the Todd Phillips-directed origins story joins The Dark Knight and Pirates Of The Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest as films to reach such a figure without the benefit of a China release during their original runs.”

So the controversial movie’s winning streak continues, as by late October 2019 it was also the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time. That and Joaquin Phoenix’s performance quickly sparked Oscar talk

Face it, the Clown Prince of Crime rules the roost right now. Just don’t mention that around Jared Leto

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