Battle at the Box Office 10/7

Despite, or probably because of, mass hysteria and also critical acclaim, Joker had the biggest October opening of all time over the past weekend.

Joker made $93.5 million at the box office, which crushes the previous top opening, last year’s Venom, by around $13 million.  It’s also the fourth biggest R rated opening of all time behind Deadpool, Deadpool 2 and IT.  It’s the 8th best opening for a DC movie between Justice League and Aquaman.  For Todd Phillips it’s his best opening of all time, topping The Hangover Part II and it’s also the best opening ever for star Joaquin Phoenix.  Internationally, made another $152 million, making it’s global total $245.7 million.

Abominable fell to second with another $12 million, dropping about 41% from last weekend.  It’s up to $37.8 million for two weeks out and it also earned $11.2 million internationally from it’s opening in China.

Downton Abbey dropped to third place with another $8 million, bringing it to $73.6 million total domestic and over $135 million worldwide.

Hustlers and IT: Chapter Two rounded out the top 5, with the latter topping over $200 million domestic.

Further down the list, Judy Garland biopic Judy opened wide and took seventh place with $4.4 million, putting it at $8.9 million for two weeks out.  Indian action movie War took ninth place in only 305 theaters with $1.5 million.  Chinese anthology My People, My Country almost made it into the top 10, coming in 11th place with $865,000 in 70 theaters.

The Per Theater average went to Pain and Glory, the latest movie from Pedro Almodovar, which made $40,022 in each of the 4 theaters it played in.