'Joker' opens well in India, earns 29cr in opening weekend

Joaquin Phoenix has impressed fans in India with his starring role as "Joker". The film has opened well in this market, collecting Rs 29 crore (gross) over its opening weekend despite releasing on October 2 alongside the Hrithik Roshan-Tiger Shroff Bollywood biggie "War" and Chiranjeevi's multilingual period drama "Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy".

"Joker" tells the story of the popular DC supervillain of the same name. The film traces the protagonist's early life as Arthur Fleck (essayed by Phoenix), who is an aspiring stand-up comedian struggling to make ends meet and constantly derided by society. The film, released in India by Warner Bros. Pictures, narrates how circumstances push Fleck into the path of crime after he fails to find his way in Gotham's fractured society.

Directed by Todd Phillips, "Joker" has become the second biggest opening weekend of all time for an IMAX release after "Avengers: Endgame". It is also the biggest opening weekend of 2019 for a Warner Bros. film, beating "Annabelle Comes Home", which released in India in June and made around Rs 16.82 crore in its opening weekend.

According to Box Office Mojo, "Joker" has topped the previous $80.25 million opening record of the 2018 movie "Venom".

Internationally, the R-rated comicbook movie scored a huge debut too, raking in $96.2 million from 4,374 North American theatres over the weekend. With Sunday estimates pinned at $93.5 million, "Joker" now stands to be the biggest October launch of all time.

The growing business of the film comes after it made headlines over apprehensions that its depiction of an assassin could incite violence, particularly gun violence, prompting cinema halls in the United States to take extra security precautions.