JOKER Brings in Record Numbers For October; Career Bests For Phillips, Phoenix, and De Niro

Joker is continuing to bring in a record amount of money in October, with an increase of $39.8M on Friday, according to Deadline. The film's 3-day haul is now at $94M. This puts the film at an expected $188M-$194M worldwide.

The film has now become the opening record for many of those involved. For director Todd Phillips, Joker bests the 3-day domestic start of his previous career best, The Hangover 2.

It is also an opening record for Joaquin Phoenix, exceeding his previous best of $60.1M in 2002 for Signs, as well as Robert De Niro, whose previous best was Shark Tale at $47.6M.

Read more on Deadline.

Directed by Todd Phillips, "Joker" centers around the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, standalone fictional story not seen before on the big screen. Phillips' exploration of Arthur Fleck, who is indelibly portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, is of a man struggling to find his way in Gotham's fractured society. A clown-for-hire by day, he aspires to be a stand-up comic at night...but finds the joke always seems to be on him. Caught in a cyclical existence between apathy and cruelty, Arthur makes one bad decision that brings about a CHAIN REACTION of escalating events in this gritty character study.

The film stars Phoenix alongside Oscar winner Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, Marc Maron, Bill Camp, Glenn Fleshler, Shea Whigham, Brett Cullen, Douglas Hodge and Josh Pais. Joker was officially released in theaters nationwide October 4, 2019.