Todd Phillips, director of the DC Comics film Joker responds to the film’s unprecedented success at the box office.
Joker has become a bit of an anomaly not just for Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Films, but for the entire comic book movie genre. Todd Phillips’ R-Rated standalone character study starring Joaquin Phoenix as the Clown Prince of Crime in Gotham City has caught the world by storm ever since it hit theaters last month. The film surpassed Deadpool 2 as the highest-grossing R-Rated film of all-time at the global box office and is currently on track to hit the $1 billion mark, making it the first R-Rated film to do so.
But even with all the box office success, Todd Phillips is particularly grateful for the film’s reception, saying that it usurps any box office records Joker continues to break:
“It’s not the box office but the reception that’s been vindicating. It’s the fact that I get emails from people telling me that the movie made them look at their sister who suffers from schizophrenia in a different light. Ultimately, the movie is about the power of kindness and the lack of empathy in the world, and the audience seems to have picked up on that. It’s amazing that a movie that was supposed to inspire, as they put it, mass mayhem really has just inspired a bunch of people dancing down staircases. I think that speaks more to our times than anything.”
Todd Phillips’ comments here also seem to be a response to much of the controversy behind the release of the film, where some have expressed concern that Joker would inspire mass mayhem. Some have criticized the film, claiming that it puts a psychotic, homicidal maniac in a sympathetic light.
While debates regarding the film’s moral messaging continue to rage on the internet, Todd Phillips’ comments also reflect on the film’s impact on the popular culture that includes fans mimicking the now-iconic staircase dance sequence in which Arthur Fleck officially dons the Joker costume and makeup for the first time.
What do you make of Todd Phillips’ comments here? Do you agree with his defense of the film and the messages it presents as a reason why it has struck a chord with audiences worldwide helping it break box office records? Sound off in the comments below, and be sure to continue following Heroic Hollywood for all the latest news on the future of DC Films.
Director Todd Phillips’ Joker centers around the iconic arch nemesis and is an original, standalone fictional story not seen before on the big screen. Phillips’ exploration of Arthur Fleck, who is indelibly portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, is of a man struggling to find his way in Gotham’s fractured society. A clown-for-hire by day, he aspires to be a stand-up comic at night…but finds the joke always seems to be on him. Caught in a cyclical existence between apathy and cruelty, Arthur makes one bad decision that brings about a chain reaction of escalating events in this gritty character study.
Directed by Todd Phillips from a script he co-wrote with Scott Silver, Joker stars Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Bill Camp, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Glenn Fleshler, Douglas Hodge, Marc Maron, Josh Pais, and Shea Whigham.
Joker is now playing in theaters.
Source: LA Times
