Despite an increasingly large pile of controversy surrounding Joker heading into its debut weekend, industry experts still anticipate the Todd Phillips film to have a record-setting weekend. In a new tracking report via Deadline, it would seem Joker is all but guaranteed to come in at $80 million its opening weekend as it creep toward’s Venom’s October opening record of $80.2m set last Columbus Day. According to the report, Joker is the second-best-selling R-rated movie on the Atom Tickets platform this year, trailing only Lionsgate’s John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. Wiick ended up winning its first weekend at the box office with a $56.8m opening in May.

Deadline reports Warner Brothers will likely push Joker hard this weekend in at least 4,000 theaters. In comparison, Venom opened in 4,250 theaters this time last year. It appears the studio will be starting previews Thursday night an hour earlier than usual, with some showings kicking off at 4 p.m. local time in most markets, An opening at $80.21m+ would cement Joker as the fourth highest R-rated comic book opening ever, behind Deadpool ($132.4m), Deadpool 2 ($125.5m), and Logan ($88.4m). it’d just edge out Venom, 300 ($70.9m), and Watchmen ($55.2m).

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