Contrary to the early estimates, Joker didn’t win the weekend box office and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil held onto the top spot, instead. Todd Phillips’ DCEU-separate origin story for the Clown Prince of Crime has been easily the most talked-about movie to reach theaters in the last four weeks, whether the discussion concerns the film’s artistic merits, box office performance, or fan theories about its place in the Batman canon. With a worldwide gross well past $800 million, Joker is also the highest-grossing R-rated film ever after less than a month of release.
In spite of that, however, the movie’s run atop the domestic box office ended when Disney’s sequel, Mistress of Evil, opened back on October 19. The live-action fairy tale tentpole (a followup to the studio’s 2014 movie, which re-imagined the eponymous Sleeping Beauty villain as a far more tragic and complicated figure) opened with nearly half of what the original Maleficent did and got a pretty middling response from critics, which made a repeat atop the box office somewhat unlikely. Indeed, Joker ended up retaking the number one spot this past weekend… or so it seemed at first.
The final weekend box office results are in and, according to Deadline, Mistress of Evil managed to hold onto the domestic box office crown after all, taking in $19.37 million. Joker instead came in second place with $19.248 million, resulting in a slim victory, but a victory for the Maleficent sequel nonetheless.
This gives Mistress of Evil a global total of $295.6 million (which includes $66.2 million in the U.S.) after less than two weeks of release. The Maleficent sequel is budgeted at $185 million and needs to make around $370 million to break even (Deadline, for its part, reports it needs $400 million), so it still has a shot at becoming a modest commercial success for the Mouse House. Mistress of Evil has already opened in every major worldwide market, though, so it may struggle to reach that mark, especially with Terminator: Dark Fate beginning its theatrical run this week. Still, with surefire blockbusters Frozen II and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker waiting in the wings for November and December, Disney probably isn’t sweating Mistress of Evil’s lower than desired box office turnout.
As for Joker, the movie (which “only” cost $55 million to produce) has already cemented its positions as one of the biggest success stories of 2019 at the box office. And with only two months left in the year, the larger discussion and debate over the DC crime drama is only going to carry on from here, especially once the nominations for pivotal pre-Oscar awards ceremonies like the Golden Globes are revealed in December. Joker might’ve lost the battle with Mistress of Evil at the box office over the weekend, but the Clown Prince of Crime is far from done making waves.
Source: Deadline
