These Numbers Tell Us 'Joker' Will Eclipse $1 Billion At The Box Office

The other day, we explored hows Joker has performed at the box office compared to other DC Comics movies. As of now, Joker 's domestic gross of 247.2 million ranks ninth amongst all DC films, and its worldwide gross of $737.5 million ranks seventh.

Just two-and-a-half weeks into its run, Joker has already managed to pass several other DC films, including Batman Begins, Superman Returns, Batman Forever and Batman Returns. All of those films are, however, on average over 20 years old. Which begs the question: can Joker outperform the films that have recently become part of the DC Extended Universe?

The answer? Definitely. In fact, despite being hundreds of millions of dollars behind several of the DC films, Joker will outperform quite a few of them.

For your evidence, look no further than Justice League. Over the course of that film's 17-week U.S. run, what was supposed to be the culmination of the DCEU's cinematic universe only pulled in $229.5 million domestically. And worldwide, Justice League only managed $657.9 million-once again, dwarfed by Joker in about 15% of the time.

So what did Joker have that Justice League didn't?

And a more important question: what do the numbers tell us about Joker 's chances of eclipsing $1 billion?

Well, it just so happens the answer to that question reveals why Joker will probably catch three other DC films at the box office: Man of Steel, Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

As a refresher, here are the domestic rankings for all DC films:

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1. The Dark Knight ($533.3 million)
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2. The Dark Knight Rises ($448.1 million)
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3. Wonder Woman ($412.6 million)
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4. Aquaman ($335.1 million)
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5. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($330.4 million)
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6. Suicide Squad ($325.1 million)
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7. Man of Steel ($291 million)
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8. Batman ($251.2 million)
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9. Joker ($247.2 million)
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10. Justice League ($229 million)

And here are the worldwide rankings:

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1. Aquaman ($1.148 billion)
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2. The Dark Knight Rises ($1.085 billion)
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3. The Dark Knight ($1.005 billion)
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4. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($873.6 million)
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5. Wonder Woman ($821.8 million)
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6. Suicide Squad ($746.8 million)
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7. Joker ($737.5 million)
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8. Man of Steel ($668 million)
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9. Justice League ($657.9 million)
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10. Batman ($411.5 million)

Notice how close Man of Steel, Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman came to the $1 billion mark. After such strong starts, we saw all three films experience gigantic drops. So what stopped them from hitting that incredible $1 billion milestone?

Much like Justice League, those three films received poor reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, Man of Steel owns a 56%; Batman v Superman suffered a 28%; and Suicide Squad takes the cake with 27%. Those are all pretty reminiscent of Justice League 's 40%.

Turns out that even Justice League wasn't capable of riding the highs from the well-received Wonder Woman. The negative reviews and internal studio fallouts were enough to plague Justice League, which opened to a $93.8 million domestic opening weekend-pretty abysmal for a movie with a $300 million budget. The film's measly domestic opening was absolutely dwarfed by its competitor, Avengers: Endgame, which debuted with $357.1 million on its first weekend.

We saw the same thing happen with Man of Steel, Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad-and we're seeing the opposite happen with Joker.

We're seeing a similar trend at the worldwide box office as well. On its opening weekend, Joker managed to pull in $152.2 million worldwide. While that total was dwarfed by Batman v Superman's $256.5 million overseas opening, Joker actually outperformed Suicide Squad by nearly $20 million.

The kicker is that Joker's second-weekend revenue only dropped 18% to $125.3 million, while Suicide Squad's dropped 56% to $59 million and Batman v Superman 's dropped 67% to $85.2 million. Turns out the bad press extended outside the U.S. and plagued both of those DC films' overseas performances.

On the other hand, the (mostly) positive press has propelled Joker further upward, possibly giving it the chance to achieve a feat accomplished by few other films. While the other DC films we've discussed had gargantuan openings that signaled $1 billion runs, those weekend-over-weekend dips in revenue plagued their lifetime gross. With the opposite scenario happening for Joker, it seems the film could be on a path to join the 43 other films that have made $1 billion.

That would only leave Aquaman, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises ahead of Joker. And if Joker managed to catch any of those films, then we've suddenly got a $1 billion film on our hands-not bad for a film with a $55 million budget.