Warner Bros/Village Roadshow’s Joker is putting on a happy face in its early overseas debuts. Through Wednesday, the Venice Golden Lion winner is at $4.2M from just four international box office markets which include only one major. The total cume so far is $5.4M with previews. It is early days, however initial indications are that Todd Phillips’ Joker could top pre-weekend projections of $75M. As we’ve previously noted, sources agree that this is a tough one to call because of its hard-R nature and the fact that it’s not a straight-up superhero pic.
Korea, which was considered something of a swing, is leaning into the Joaquin Phoenix-starrer with $2.25M on Wednesday’s opening day, the 4th biggest ever for Warner. It’s also WB’s best R-rated opening day ever and industry 4th best. The film easily ranked No. 1 with a 56% share of the Top 5 films and outpaced all of the comps, with the exception of Venom which opened on a public holiday. In terms of DC pics, the Korea launch is the 3rd highest opening day behind Suicide Squad and The Dark Knight Rises. The cume through Thursday in Korea (not reflected in the figures above) is estimated at a very strong $6.44M with nearly 50% of the market share on what was a public holiday.
Also bowing on Wednesday, India opened to $900K for the 10th best WB start ever. Joker is the number one foreign film in the market and outpaced all comps.
Indonesia’s $846K on 1,197 screens dominated the market with a massive 98% share of the Top 5 films. Joker is tracking ahead of all comps with the exception of Venom, which had a lower rating. This was WB’s 5th biggest opening day of all time in the market.
In Belgium, $170K scored the top WB opening day of 2019 and biggest WB October opening day ever.
The movie has been greatly anticipated since it premiered to raves on the Lido, and despite concerns domestically over potential security threats. Offshore, we hear that exhibitors don’t have the same concerns with European pre-bookings at a phenomenal pace amid great word-of-mouth. Notably, the two Euro majors that don’t go this weekend are France and Germany.
Today, Thursday, Joker opens in 43 more markets including Italy, Russia, Brazil and Australia. Friday sees the global launch expand into another 26 markets including Spain, UK, Japan and Mexico. By the end of the weekend there will be 73 international markets in release.
More updates to come throughout the weekend.