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Box office: Joker retakes No. 1 spot from Maleficent 2 with hilarious $18.9 million
You can't keep a good clown down!
After it was knocked out of first place at the box office by Maleficent: Mistress of Evil last weekend, Joker has retaken the top spot with $18.9 million in its fourth circuit in domestic theaters. This non-consecutive power play comes just days after the Todd Phillips-directed feature for Warner Bros. became the highest-grossing R-rated film in history, swiping the title from 2016's Deadpool thanks via a worldwide haul of $849 million. According to Variety, the project is only the third release this year, after Universal's Glass and Marvel Studios' Avengers: Endgame, to nab the top spot for three weekends.
Starring Joaquin Phoenix in the titular role, Joker (co-written by Phillips and Scott Silver) offers up a bleak origin story for Batman's greatest nemesis. The "comic book movie" also features Zazie Beetz, Robert De Niro, and Brett Cullen.
Disney's Maleficent sequel had to settle for second place during its second weekend, with a North American total of $18.5 million. To date, the dark fantasy flick from director Joachim Rønning has generated $65 million domestically. Overseas, it's made $64.3 million, bumping up the global tally to $228 million. For comparison, the first Maleficent (released in the spring of 2014) did much better in its second weekend, with more than $128 million from North American venues.
Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning return to play Maleficent and Princess Aurora, respectively.
Third place was occupied by MGM's animated Addams Family project, which scared up an additional $11.7 million for a current domestic total of $72.8 million. Internationally, the family-friendly Halloween-focused effort has made $83.9 million. Oscar Isaac and Charlize Theron lead the voice cast as the Addams patriarch and matriarch, Gomez and Morticia.
Sony's Zombieland: Double Tap snacked on the brains of fourth place with an extra $11.6 million. The sequel's North American undead cache now stands at $47 million. Interestingly, the first Zombieland had accrued the same amount by its second domestic outing in the fall of 2009.
The entire original crew (director Ruben Fleischer; writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese; and cast members Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin) all came back for the second raunchy installment.
Countdown, STX's tech-based horror-thriller, debuted this weekend with a solid $9 million, securing the fifth spot at the box office. Written and directed by Justin Dec, the Final Destination-esque film (which cost around $6.5 million to make) centers on a phone app that can predict a person's death. Watch an exclusive clip from the movie right here.
In eighth place we have Robert Eggers' second directorial effort, The Lighthouse. The black-and-white psychological thriller starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson guided an extra $3 million to safety. That's a ton better than its $350,000 debut last weekend. So far, the A24 release has racked up $3.6 million domestically.
Enjoying its third weekend in American theaters, Parasite (directed and co-written by Bong Joon Ho) broke $4 million with an added $1.8 million.
Now in a limited release from Saban Films, Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob Reboot nabbed $1.5 million from 17 North American theaters. The feature sees Smith and Jason Mewes reprising the titular iconic roles they made famous in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001).
Jojo Rabbit, the latest comedic effort from Taika Waititi, has broken the $1 million barrier during its sophomore outing, with $1.4 million from 55 theaters at home. Adapted from the novel of the same name by Christine Leunens, the World War II-set film tells the story of a Hitler Youth member (Roman Griffin Davis) who becomes disillusioned when he finds a Jewish girl (Thomasin McKenzie) hiding from the Nazis in his home.
"It's very visual, it's beautifully filmed. That was very true to the era and what people are wearing," Leunens told SYFY Fangrrls. "When I see camps, the Hitler Youth camps, it's exactly like the pictures that I used to have when I was researching. There were so many things I saw on the screen that would bring me back to when I was in the museum. Every time I saw touches like that, true to history, it was very moving for me."
And finally, Ang Lee's Gemini Man seems to be plateauing out at $123 million worldwide. The globe-trotting clone thriller with Will Smith, Clive Owen, Benedict Wong, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead has only made a little over $40 million in North America.
(certain info via Box Office Mojo)
