‘Joker’ Opens at $39.9 Million Friday, Eyes October Record

(Bloomberg) -- “Joker,” the controversial Warner Bros. film about the deranged DC Comics villain, had the biggest opening ever for a movie released in October after taking home $39.9 million Friday, setting the stage for an even bigger weekend.

The film may be eyeing a $92 million weekend, based on analyst estimates, despite public criticism about violence that echoes recent mass shootings. It’s likely to beat the previous October record holder “Venom,” which made $80.3 million in its opening weekend last year.

“‘Joker’ is looking to claim the top October weekend debut and has claimed biggest opening day for October already,” Comscore said in a statement.

In the movie, director Todd Phillips created a character study of the DC Comics super-criminal known as the Joker, tracing his evolution from a lonely man who lives with his mother and works as a clown, to an epic villain.

Warner Bros. spent about $55 million making “Joker,” or about quarter of the typical superhero-film budget -- which means it can make money even if the picture fails to produce superhero-like ticket sales.

Phillips’s dark vision led to concerns the film might spark violence. Families of victims of a 2012 mass shooting at an Aurora, Colorado, theater wrote the studio expressing concern. In that incident, a man opened fire during a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises,” a Warner Bros. film about Batman.

The Century Theater located at the Bella Terra shopping center in Huntington Beach, California, canceled two screenings of the movie earlier this week after the local police received information about “a possible threat.” The Huntington Beach Police Department will provide patrols at the venue for the rest of this weekend.

The studio, part of AT&T Inc., said that the movie isn’t intended “to hold this character up as a hero.” The company said it has a long history of donating to victims of violence and noted its parent in recent weeks has called on policymakers to address the “epidemic” of gun violence.

--With assistance from Chiara Vasarri.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hailey Waller in New York at hwaller@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, Linus Chua, Ian Fisher

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