According to Joaquin Phoenix, perfecting Joker's laugh was the most difficult part of bringing the character to life.
Phoenix based his laugh on 'videos of people suffering from pathological laughter disease' and aimed to create a character the audience could not identify with. Pathological laughter is a real condition that causes uncontrollable fits in stressful situations; although rare, these fits can cut off the flow of oxygen, causing hypoxia and even suffocation.
Joker became the first R-rated film to gross 1 billion dollars worldwide.
Speaking to SFX magazine, Phoenix said he found the violence in the film 'more instinctual and raw' compared to productions like Avengers, but that he never hesitated about it: 'You always want it to feel real, and you want the little violence we have to have an impact. In a lot of movies you kill 40,000 people and you become desensitized. Even though it's fictional, we wanted you to feel everything.'
Phoenix, who lost 52 kilos, described the process as follows: 'Once you reach the target weight, everything changes. The hard part is becoming obsessed with 0.3 kilos every day; you really develop a disorder. What I expected was dissatisfaction, hunger and vulnerability, but what I didn't expect was a feeling of physical fluidity. I was able to move my body in ways I couldn't before, and that contributed a great deal to the character's physical movements.'
Phoenix said his favourite moment during the shoot was getting a retort in at Murray Franklin, played by Robert De Niro: 'It was one of my favourites, saying 'Murr-AY'... Todd loved it too. When I did it, I thought De Niro was going to throw an ashtray at me.'
About Joker's laugh, Phoenix said: 'It's almost something painful. I think for Joker it's a part of him that wants to come out. Everyone assumes what the Joker laugh is, but this was a new and fresh perspective on it. I practised alone, but I wanted Todd to listen; I had to be able to do it instantly and in front of someone. It was really uncomfortable and it took a long time.'
Todd Phillips described Phoenix's interpretation of Arthur as 'a man in search of an identity who accidentally becomes a symbol; his aim is to make people laugh and bring joy to the world.'
According to the New York Times, Phillips said Phoenix sometimes lost his composure on set and surprised his co-stars: 'He walks off in the middle of a scene and the poor other actor thinks it's because of them, when it was always because of him.' Phoenix always came back and told Phillips, 'We'll take a walk and come back and do it.' De Niro, for his part, called Phoenix 'a flawless professional': 'He was very intense in his work, as he should be. There was nothing personal, just let's do the work.'
Phoenix described how his understanding of Joker evolved during the shoot: 'I felt like we were discovering new sides of his personality every day, right up until the last day. His was a struggle to find happiness, to connect, to feel warmth and love, and that's what interested me. The character in the first weeks was completely different from the one at the end. The more unpredictable and loose we kept it, the more exciting it was.'
The unnamed woman harassed by the three Wall Street men whom Arthur inadvertently 'rescues' at around the 30th minute is later seen at the rally (46th minute) wearing a clown mask; these people were inspired by his killing of the three men.
Arthur's joke, 'When I was a little boy and told people I was going to be a comedian, everyone laughed at me. Well, no one's laughing now,' is a variation on the late British comedian Bob Monkhouse's joke, 'When I said I wanted to be a comedian, people laughed at me. Well, they're not laughing now.' Like Arthur, Monkhouse also kept hundreds of handwritten joke books.
At the Venice Film Festival, Phoenix was reticent when asked whether he took Arthur's side: 'The greatest pleasure of the film for the audience is deciding for themselves about the transformation. That's what appealed to me; in most films the motivations are clear, but here you can never be sure. I have my own opinion, but I wouldn't want to impose it on someone who hasn't seen it.'
When Arthur enters Sophie's apartment, he says, 'I had a bad day.' This is a reference to the comic book 'The Killing Joke'; Joker's theory is that everyone is only one bad day away from madness.
Although Arthur's mother is genuinely delusional, a freeze-frame of her psychiatric file reveals that she was lobotomized.
Todd Phillips won the Golden Lion in Venice. In his speech he thanked Warner Bros. and DC 'for stepping outside their comfort zone and giving this brave film a chance,' and said, 'The film wouldn't exist without Joaquin Phoenix. He is the strongest, brightest and most open-minded lion I know. Thank you for trusting me with your crazy talent.'
Phoenix explained that Joker's strange dance moves were largely influenced by Ray Bolger: 'In the video for the song 'The Old Soft Shoe' that he performed, there was an almost strange arrogance, and I stole it entirely from him. He does this thing of lifting his chin up. The choreographer Michael Arnold showed me tons of videos, but I focused on that one. 'That was the Joker.' I was also influenced by disco.'
The producers cite Alan Moore's comic book 'The Killing Joke', which tells Joker's origin, and Martin Scorsese's 'Taxi Driver', 'Raging Bull' and 'The King of Comedy' as influences.
The film mentions giant rats in Gotham, and at least three CGI giant rats are seen running through the streets: while Arthur talks in a phone booth (minute 29), while he chases the last yuppie outside the subway (minute 34), and while Bruce cries over his parents' bodies (1 hour 50 minutes). This adds a disturbing element to the film's dark atmosphere.
The scene where Arthur punches the time card machine off the wall was not in the script. Leigh Gill (Gary) said in an interview that during one take Phoenix decided to make a joke about suddenly quitting and punched the machine cleanly off the wall.
At minute 42 of the film, Arthur Fleck performs at Pogo's Comedy Club in Gotham. Pogo the Clown was the stage name used in real life by serial killer John Wayne Gacy.
The melody of the song 'Smile' heard in the teaser trailer is based on the instrumental theme Charlie Chaplin composed for his 1936 film Modern Times. The lyrics were added 18 years later by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons. In the trailer, Chaplin's film is shown with a live audience.
Todd Phillips described the film's violence as 'something that burns slowly': 'Instead of high-dose violence like in John Wick 3, we painted it with a realistic brush so that when it comes, it feels like a punch to the stomach.' On the balance of tone, he said, 'Films are mirrors of society, not its shapers. We wrote it in 2017, and some themes inevitably found themselves. This is not a political film,' and laughter rose in the press room.
In September 2019, Todd Phillips wanted comic book fans to know that Joaquin Phoenix's Joker and Robert Pattinson's Batman would never meet in the same universe. He added that this did not mean Pattinson would not encounter the Joker, only that he would not have his own version.
While being honored at the Venice Film Festival, Joaquin Phoenix said he owed his career to his late brother River Phoenix. He recounted that River came home with a copy of Robert De Niro's Raging Bull and encouraged him not to give up acting.
Costing 55 million dollars, Joker grossed 1 billion dollars worldwide, making it the cheapest film to cross that threshold.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, neurocriminologist Adrian Raine admired the authenticity of the film's portrayal of the criminal mind: 'I have been studying the causes of crime and violence for 42 years. This film is a great educational tool about the making of a killer.' Raine diagnosed Arthur Fleck with schizotypal personality disorder and uses the film in his classes at the University of Pennsylvania.
While in Batman canon his parents are usually killed by an ordinary robber, Joe Chill, in the 1989 Batman film the killer was Jack Napier (the future Joker). In Joker, however, a masked rioter kills the Waynes, making it the second film to imply that the Joker is connected to Batman's creation.
Asked whether the film sympathizes with Arthur's condition, Zazie Beetz responded: 'It's an empathy toward isolation and toward our duty as a society to care for people who slip through the cracks. Is it an observation on struggling personalities, or empathy for him?'
Arthur takes pleasure in watching a Charlie Chaplin film. In most continuities, the Joker admires classic comedians, and Chaplin is among his favorites.
Joaquin Phoenix said he accepted the role of Joker 'because I wasn't sure about it': 'I get bored when I have all the answers. This really left me in suspense.'
After winning the Best Actor Oscar, Phoenix spoke in his speech about treating people well and about animal rights. He ended his speech with a lyric written by his late brother River Phoenix: 'Run to the rescue with love, and peace will follow.'
Arthur's adoption documents state that he was abandoned and has no real birth name. This may be a reference to the Joker having no official name in the comics.
Joaquin Phoenix described an unexpected challenge he faced during filming: 'The moment in the bathroom after the subway was truly transformative. We talked about that scene throughout rehearsals, but I struggled to find something meaningful to show the transformation from Arthur to Joker. We tried many versions every day until the last scene I shot. Once Todd [Phillips] and I got used to it, things really started to emerge. It was an unexpected, strange and unique but enjoyable process.'
Speaking at the Venice Film Festival, Joaquin Phoenix said he wanted his version of the Joker to be extremely complex and that he therefore did extensive research on various personality disorders, so that even psychiatrists would not be able to diagnose his character. He added that he and the filmmaker continued to discover new aspects of the character until the last day of shooting.
Warner Bros. initially hesitated to make the film because they found it too dark and violent; they were worried about the Joker's image being damaged for children. However, a year later, with Todd Phillips's persuasion, they continued with the project. A violent R-rated DC adaptation was not new for the studio; they had made significant expenditures for V for Vendetta (2005) and Watchmen (2009), the latter with a budget of over 130 million dollars, more than twice that of Joker.
Director Todd Phillips said he deliberately left it ambiguous whether Arthur is the real Joker or inspired another character. Joaquin Phoenix, however, stated that he believes Arthur is the real Joker.
Todd Phillips, inspired by Sergio Leone, asked composer Hildur Guðnadóttir to write the music before filming, which was unusual. The aim was to use the music on set while shooting scenes to set the mood.
A scene cut from the leaked script was one in which Arthur tells Sophie that as a child he cut a slight smile into his face to scare bullies. This scene would have returned at the end of the film when Arthur (now Joker) reopens the wounds with a shard of glass from the car wreck and widens the smile in front of the crowd. Christopher Nolan asked for the scene to be removed to avoid similarities with his own version of the Joker in The Dark Knight (2008). Instead, Arthur draws a smile on his face with his own blood. The face-cutting scene was finally included in Joker: Folie à Deux (2024), made after Nolan left Warner Bros.
Director Todd Phillips confirmed that Arthur does not kill Sophie or her child after asking her to leave his apartment. Phillips explained a cut scene in which Sophie watches Arthur on the Murray Franklin Show, and added that he was surprised some people thought Arthur killed her.
Joaquin Phoenix had previously been associated with four different DC Comics roles: Batman in Darren Aronofsky's cancelled Batman: Year One film, Nite Owl in Paul Greengrass's cancelled Watchmen film, the Joker in The Dark Knight (2008), and Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).
The film was Joaquin Phoenix's fourth Oscar nomination for acting and his first win.
In the scene where the Joker appears on the Murray Franklin Show, there is a reference to the 1986 graphic novel "The Dark Knight Returns." In the film, the Joker walks out and kisses Dr. Salley; in the comic, he appears on the David Endochrine show and kisses Dr. Ruth, infecting her with the Joker toxin on his lipstick.
The two films playing at the cinema the Wayne family attends near the end of the film are Blow Out (1981) and Zorro: The Gay Blade (1981). Both are real films released on consecutive weekends in July 1981. "Zorro" is traditionally the film the Wayne family watched on that fateful night in Batman's origin story.
Brett Cullen strongly believes that Arthur really is Thomas's son and played the role with that truth in mind.
The original script leak had a different ending: after killing Murray, Arthur flees the studio. A riot breaks out, and rioters enter Wayne Manor, drag Thomas and Martha Wayne outside and execute them. Bruce hides and is found by Alfred the next day. Arthur evades the police for several days, appears at the Waynes' funeral and is noticed. While trying to escape, he is hit by a car and caught by the police.
Joaquin Phoenix improvised the scene in which Arthur gets into the refrigerator.
In an earlier version of the script, Sophie had a different story. Arthur had initially dated her several times, but Sophie only did so out of pity and was in a romantic relationship with someone else. When Arthur discovers this, he delivers a long speech to her face and tells her to watch the Murray Franklin show on that fateful night. This version makes it clear that he does not kill her, because Sophie is shown watching the show with her child.
In early footage, Arthur is seen walking past a sign for Amusement Mile, Gotham City's version of Coney Island, which featured prominently in the original Killing Joke graphic novel. Joker co-creator Bill Finger was partly inspired by the Steeplechase Park sign at the real Coney Island, which featured a terrifying grinning face.
Todd Phillips does not see Joker as a major departure from comedy. "In tone it's different from my other work, but ultimately it's storytelling. I was influenced by the character studies of the '70s that I watched growing up. Why shouldn't you make a film like that in the comic book world too? Going deep into a character like the Joker, we could really do something special with a great actor," he says.
The comedian Arthur watches at the comedy club in the 25th minute of the film is Gary Gulman. His sketch about role-playing with his girlfriend appears on Gulman's 2012 album 'No Can Defend.'
Thanks to his participation deal, Todd Phillips stood to earn as much as $100 million from the film. When the film surpassed $1 billion worldwide as of November 2019, Phillips earned $70 million as a result of calculations with Warner Bros. in 2020.
Joaquin Phoenix became the second actor to win an Academy Award for playing the Joker. The first was Heath Ledger for his performance in The Dark Knight. This is the second time two actors have won Oscars for playing the same character in different films. The first was Marlon Brando winning for playing Vito Corleone in The Godfather, and two years later Robert De Niro winning for the same character in The Godfather Part II.
After the disappointment of Justice League, Walter Hamada took over as head of DC film production at Warner Bros. in January 2018. Hamada reviewed the films in development, cancelling some and moving others forward. Joker was expected to begin shooting in late 2018 with a small budget. In June, Robert De Niro was being considered for a supporting role. The deal with Joaquin Phoenix was finalized in July 2018 after Todd Phillips's four-month effort to persuade him. Warner Bros. immediately greenlit the film and described it as 'not just a gritty character study, but also a broader cautionary tale, an exploration of a man disregarded by society.'
Joaquin Phoenix improvised the bathroom dance scene on the spot. In the script, Arthur simply runs into the bathroom, hides the gun, washes his face and talks to himself while looking in the mirror.
The bathroom argument between Arthur and Thomas Wayne was improvised by Joaquin Phoenix and Brett Cullen.
According to Todd Phillips, a scene in which Arthur is in the bathtub was cut so that the film would not receive an NC-17 rating. Phillips considers the scene 'great' but, worried about the MPAA's reaction, did not leave it in the theatrical version. 'I don't think we could use that in an R-rated movie, it was crazy,' he says.
After Todd Phillips finished the script, it took a year to convince new people. 'Are you aware that we sell Joker pajamas at Target?' emails kept coming. You had to overcome countless obstacles one by one. At the time I was cursing them out in my head every day. But then you have to put it in perspective and say, 'It was a brave move to do this,' he says.
In the German, Italian, French, Spanish, Russian and Hungarian versions of the film, Arthur's journal entries and the card explaining his condition are in the respective national languages. This is quite unusual for a live-action film, because it required extra prop production and shooting.
Todd Phillips on the iconic stairs: 'We thought it would be a pretty iconic moment for the film, but I didn't know it would become New York's version of the Rocky steps,' he says, laughing.
Todd Phillips believes his film is about kindness and empathy: 'If I had to reduce it to a single overarching theme, it's the power of kindness. If you don't see that, you either have no soul or you're being reductive. The film has a lack of love, a lack of empathy in society and childhood trauma, but the power of kindness really works.'
Until September 2017, Warner Brothers was considering Leonardo DiCaprio for the role of Joker and hoped to persuade him by using Martin Scorsese's involvement. However, in February 2018, Joaquin Phoenix was Todd Phillips's first choice. Phoenix was excited when he learned about the film because it was the kind of film he wanted to make and it didn't feel like a typical 'studio film'. It took him time to accept the role because it frightened him: 'Most of the time these films have simplified archetypes, they allow the audience to keep their distance from the character. It's easy to label someone as bad, and then it's easy to say, 'I'm not like that,'' he said.
On The Playlist podcast in early 2021, Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Wright discuss the film. Tarantino noted that the talk show scene at the end of the film succeeds in making the audience hate Murray Franklin so much that they accept Arthur Fleck killing him.
The news clips at the opening of the film discuss a garbage strike. New York's garbage collectors went on strike in 1981. The '80s were also alive in Joker's talk show guest Dr. Sally; this was a nod to Ruth Westheimer, known as the 1980s sex talk show personality Dr. Ruth.
Todd Phillips became the first director to receive a Best Director nomination at the Academy Awards for a comic book film.
The only scene in which Arthur Fleck is absent is the scene late in the film during the riot in which Thomas and Martha Wayne are shot and killed by one of the protesters.
Editor Jeff Groth on cutting during the dark moments on the train: 'Not every cut is on a flash. These flashes were meant to confuse the audience and turn the sequence into a fever dream for Arthur. When you cut to black, you expect to see the same thing when you come out of the black, but we show something different. The aim is to create anxiety and tension. When Arthur starts that laugh, we wanted to evoke the feeling that he's losing control.' The film constantly moves back and forth between Arthur's fantasy and reality, and the audience doesn't know which is real.
Joaquin Phoenix initially signed on only for this standalone film because he did not want to be part of a film series. However, the critical and audience response was so great that, as of November 2019, he said he might consider making a second film, provided he was not expected to join the DCEU and the sequel had a similar feel and look to the first film.
Applying Joaquin Phoenix's Joker makeup took 15 to 20 minutes. In a discarded version of the scene in which Arthur dances in the bathroom, he washes off his makeup before leaving. About 16 takes of the scene were shot, and makeup artist Nicki Ledermann had to reapply the makeup each time to ensure consistency.
Todd Phillips and Scott Silver wrote the script for Joker throughout 2017, in a process that lasted about a year. According to producer Emma Tillinger Koskoff, getting approval from Warner Bros. took time because of content concerns. Phillips also stated that they encountered 'countless obstacles' because of the character's visibility. He said that although the script's themes reflect modern society, the film was not intended to be political.
Joaquín Phoenix cited Tim Curry's acting in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) as one of his inspirations for his performance in this film.
Although it is not explicitly stated in the film, it is strongly implied that Arthur Fleck suffers from an eating disorder believed to be anorexia nervosa. His skeletal appearance, his not eating anything and his mother's saying he should eat more support this. Being starved as a child by his mother's abusive boyfriend may also have influenced his eating habits as an adult. His frequent smoking also contributes to his thin physique.
An early reference for Todd Phillips and Scott Silver was the silent film The Man Who Laughs (1928). Phillips said that the Joker not having an origin story in the comics gave them freedom, and that they pushed each other every day to come up with something crazy.
A week after the film's release, Joaquin Phoenix secretly attended a screening at the Alamo Drafthouse in the San Fernando Valley, surprising fans watching the film. He answered questions, posed for photos and shook hands. When asked to do the anguished Joker laugh from the film, he experienced a little stage fright.
On September 22, 2018, a violent protest scene was shot in Brooklyn, but the station was altered to resemble Bedford Park Blvd. In late September 2018, robbery scenes were shot at the First Central Savings Bank in Astoria, Queens. According to Zazie Beetz, Todd Phillips rewrote the entire script during production, because Joaquin Phoenix had lost so much weight that there was no chance of reshoots. Beetz recalls, "We would go to Todd's trailer, write the scene for that night and then perform it. I would memorize the lines during hair and makeup, then we would do it, and three weeks later we would shoot it again."
Early in the film (around the 6th minute), when therapist Arthur looks at his journal, he sees that he has written about people walking over a dead man in the street. At the end, on the Murray Show (around 1 hour 40 minutes), while the crowd boos him, he says, "If I were the one who died on the sidewalk, you would just walk over me."
Director Todd Phillips said that Joaquin Phoenix was the most "nimble" actor he had ever worked with.
Joaquín Phoenix won nearly every award for which he was nominated for his role in this film, including Best Actor at the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
The "super rats" segment on Murray Franklin's show and in the news refers to Ratcatcher, a D-list villain who can control rats with his mind. The character is set to appear in James Gunn's The Suicide Squad (2021).
According to a GQ profile, there was a disagreement between Joaquin Phoenix and Robert De Niro. While Phoenix dislikes rehearsing or table reads, De Niro demanded them. This led to a small conflict at the start of production. Phoenix uses his anxiety to fuel his performances; rehearsals and readings go against his process. Phoenix's refusal to do a table read provoked a strong reaction from De Niro, who told Todd Phillips, "Tell him he's an actor and he needs to be there." Phoenix replied, "There's no way I'm doing a table read." In the end the two reached a compromise, and Phoenix attended a read at De Niro's production office. It is noted that Phoenix has been a big fan of De Niro since Raging Bull (1980) thanks to River Phoenix, but that he struggled during the Joker table read, 'mumbling'. Phoenix said that he initially refused an offer of a private meeting in De Niro's office and said he felt sick. Fortunately, things ended positively when De Niro kissed Phoenix on the cheek and reassured him, saying, "Everything will be fine, bubbeleh."
Alec Baldwin had entered talks for the role of Thomas Wayne but left the project a day after the role was announced due to scheduling conflicts.
At around the 23rd minute, while Arthur dances in the living room with a gun, Joaquin Phoenix improvised the scene and added the line "Hey Arthur, you're a really good dancer."
While promoting the film, Joaquin Phoenix paid tribute to his close friend and the late actor Heath Ledger. Ledger had previously played the Joker in The Dark Knight (2008).
Film composer Hildur Guðnadóttir performed the cello solos herself.
In an interview, Todd Phillips said that the first cut of the film was 155 minutes long and that there were multiple different cuts. There are many promotional photos showing deleted scenes and some additional scenes seen in all the trailers.
Since the film's release in late 2019, the character Arthur Fleck/Joker has become a symbol in government corruption protests in countries around the world, such as Lebanon, Chile, Iraq and China. In June and July 2020, the image of Arthur Fleck/Joker appeared in the George Floyd protests.
Due to the film's success, director Todd Phillips will write and direct the sequel.
This film portrays Thomas Wayne as cold-hearted and possibly an adulterer. Depending on possibilities and interpretations, it is implied that Wayne had a relationship with Penny Fleck decades earlier. In the 2018 DC Black Label three-issue comic series "Batman: Damned," Thomas Wayne was also depicted as cold-hearted and adulterous. In a flashback in the first issue, young Bruce sees his father with a woman who is not his mother, and it becomes clear that Wayne took his son to his rendezvous with his mistress.
Director Todd Phillips said the following about Joaquin Phoenix's acting style: "If you went to him and gave him a single direction, it would change everything in a wonderful way."
Todd Phillips describes Joaquin Phoenix's lighthearted manner on set: 'When we said cut, he would immediately start joking around, then slip back into that dark character. Off set he was quite cheerful.'
The card explaining Arthur's uncontrollable laughing on the bus states that the condition is due to brain damage caused by physical abuse he suffered in childhood. This damage is most likely also the basis of his mental problems.
While preparing for the role, Joaquin Phoenix studied the movements of silent film stars such as Buster Keaton and Ray Bolger.
Before the film was released, its opening-weekend gross was projected at between $50 million and $80 million. Despite attacks from the mainstream media, positive word of mouth pushed the figure to $96 million, nearly doubling the estimates.
Vincent D'Onofrio praised Joaquin Phoenix's performance, saying, "This young man deserves the recognition." Jessica Chastain joined in with the comment, "One of the greatest examples of acting I have ever seen. I sat in the cinema with my mouth open, it shook me."
New Yorkers will recognize the Brooklyn Army Terminal annex of Arkham State Hospital. The film's records make it clear that Arthur Fleck enters and leaves this grim facility with his mother.
Mark Hamill praised the film on Instagram, writing, "Magnificent Joaquin Phoenix, Todd Phillips and Scott Silver reimagine the character in a way never seen before! Two thumbs up from that old-school, comic book version... me."
Todd Phillips wanted Joker's laugh to be almost painful. Phoenix tried many different laughs and "stole" them for the director. The result was a memorable and unsettling laugh.
An alternative ending had Arthur confessing to his therapist that he himself had killed Thomas and Martha Wayne, leaving Bruce crying and then returning to kill him too. This ending was cut because Bruce's death would mean Batman would not exist.
It took Joaquin Phoenix time to find the character. Weeks after filming began, he discovered sincerity in a scene that was cut from the film. With Phillips insisting he "try another one," he dropped all his acting tricks and focused only on listening, and this became the turning point of his performance.
According to Todd Phillips, the reason the film took so long to edit was that Joaquin Phoenix did things very differently every time: "I think there are 18 trillion versions of this film."
Phillips stated that he loved Phoenix's style and unpredictability, that it suited the character perfectly, and that he never locked into any one thing.
Joker's red suit is a tribute to Rupert Pupkin's red suit in The King of Comedy (1982). Pupkin is also a failed comedian who kidnaps a talk-show host.
Todd Phillips said he made the film because he loves villains: the question "Why is he like this? What made him this way?" is fun. The film is not a grand statement about today's world; the real aim is to ask the question "What makes someone like this?"
The protest scene references Charles Chaplin's Modern Times (1936). Chaplin's Little Tramp, like Arthur, tries to survive in the modern world.
In its sixth week of release, the film surpassed The Dark Knight's (2008) worldwide box office of $1.008 billion with $1.018 billion (not adjusted for inflation).
Despite 58 scenes being cut, the film was banned from Indian television in 2020 for being "too violent."
While preparing for the role of Arthur Fleck, Joaquin Phoenix had to push all the other Joker actors out of his mind. This was to have fewer distractions and make his performance unique.
Phoenix described a scene cut from the film as one of the best. Phillips, however, said he would not show deleted scenes: "The film that exists is exactly the film I wanted." In the cut scene, Arthur has a second meeting with his co-worker Randall; Phillips stated that cutting the scene was "heartbreaking."
Joker is the second DC film to receive an R rating after Batman: The Killing Joke (2016).
Todd Phillips dreamed of shooting Joker on 70 mm film cameras but gave up because of budget constraints. He also ruled out standard RED digital and 35 mm film cameras because too many close-ups would be shot and he wanted to give the film an intimate, unsettling atmosphere. When he insisted on a large format, cinematographer Lawrence Sher suggested Arri Alexa 65 digital cameras as a compromise, and that was ultimately chosen.
After the film's unexpected success, rumors circulated that Joaquin Phoenix would be paid $50 million to return as Arthur Fleck/Joker in two sequels.
Frances McDormand turned down the role of Penny Fleck.
Joker became the third film to gross $1 billion worldwide before opening in China. The Caribbean Pirates: Dead Man's Chest (2006) and The Dark Knight (2008) had achieved this feat before. Later, Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and Top Gun: Maverick (2022) were added to this list.
The clue that Arthur and Sophie's relationship is entirely imaginary is that when Sophie appears at the door, Arthur addresses her by name. Yet in their first meeting, they had not told each other their names.
The film stayed at number one at the United Kingdom box office for six consecutive weeks and became the first release to achieve this since Avatar (2009).
Jackson C. Frank's poignant folk song "My Name is Carnival" is included in the soundtrack and is mentioned in the dialogue.
The Wayne Enterprises employees who beat Arthur on the train tell him to "lie down," while in the final riot scene, protesters wake the unconscious Arthur by telling him to "get up."
Above the television in Arthur's home hangs Thomas Gainsborough's painting "The Blue Boy"; the same painting had also been seen in the art museum in Batman (1989).
The death toll in the film is eight: three Wall Street employees, Penny, Randall, Murray Franklin, and Thomas and Martha Wayne. Although the therapist at Arkham is implied to be killed in the closing scene, she is not counted among Arthur's victims in the sequel Joker: Folie à Deux (2024), so this scene is thought to be a delusion.
Joaquin Phoenix rejected the criticism that he gravitates toward characters who suffer: "I was interested in Arthur's light; it wasn't just torture, it was joy, the pursuit of happiness and the effort to connect. It contained warmth and love. I don't see a character as someone who suffers." Of Arthur/Joker, Phoenix said, "For me he meant very different things at different times; the more unpredictable he was, the more inspiring he was."
When the film passed $1 billion at the worldwide box office, director Todd Phillips thanked fans on Instagram. He shared a 20-second video featuring clips from the film and fan comments from Twitter, embellished with quotes from critics.
Joker received 11 nominations at the 2020 Oscars, the most nominations ever earned by a film.
Joaquin Phoenix became the sixth actor to receive an Oscar nomination for playing a comic book character. Before him, Jackie Cooper, Al Pacino, Paul Newman, William Hurt and Heath Ledger had achieved this. Of these six, only Ledger and Phoenix won.
Despite his frail and skeletal appearance, Arthur Fleck displays surprising shows of strength. After being fired from his job, he smashes a clock with his fist while mocking Randall. At Wayne Manor, he grabs Alfred through the bars and begins to strangle him. He kills Randall, despite Randall being physically larger, by stabbing him and banging his head against a wall.
Both Murray Franklin and Thomas Wayne die with their killers shouting, "You get what you deserve!"
In the 1988 DC graphic novel 'The Killing Joke,' a single bad day is enough to drive the man who becomes the Joker insane. In this film, however, it takes a lifetime of bad days for Arthur Fleck to become the Joker. The film is partly based on that graphic novel.
Director Guillermo del Toro stated that he was a big fan of the film.
In the film, Thomas Wayne is running for mayor. In the first draft of the screenplay for Batman (1989), there was also a rumor that Thomas Wayne was running for mayor and was killed for that reason.
While talking with Randall in his apartment, Arthur extinguishes his cigarette on the wall in the shape of a smile, then presses his fist against it and puts his hand in his pocket. This shows that his Joker side is slowly taking over.
At the end of the film, Arthur's laughter is connected to Bruce Wayne witnessing the murder of his parents. Some argue that Arthur laughs because he knows Bruce will have a childhood as full of trauma as his own and will become a troubled individual. According to others, the scene takes place in the future when Bruce is Batman, and Arthur realizes that he indirectly caused the creation of his enemy.
Warner Bros. president Toby Emmerich was cold on the film from the start. He cut the budget to dissuade Todd Phillips, but Phillips was determined. Emmerich, albeit reluctantly, allowed production to continue.
When the trailer for Cruella (2021) was released, it was frequently compared to Joker because of the similarity in tone and atmosphere. It was even said that Cruella looked more like a Batman villain than a Disney villain. When comedian Matthew Highton combined the audio of the Joker trailer with footage of Cruella, the similarities became even more obvious.
Joaquin Phoenix and Heath Ledger were close friends in real life, despite both having played the Joker. While Ledger played the Joker in The Dark Knight (2008), Phoenix brought Arthur Fleck/Joker to life in this film.
After watching the film, Josh Brolin said he found it impressive: "To appreciate 'Joker,' you have to have experienced something traumatic in your life or understand true compassion."
When we first see Arthur on the stairs, he is walking up; this symbolizes his effort to be a normal person. When we last see him, he is dancing down them in his Joker costume; this represents his embrace of his madness.
A month after the film's release, right after it passed $1 billion worldwide, a short video of Joaquin Phoenix shooting the iconic stair dance scene went viral. The video had been recorded by an unknown person living in the Bronx.
In the subway scene, three Wayne Enterprises employees beat Arthur, while in the riot scene at the end, three protesters rescue the unconscious Arthur. These two scenes mirror each other: humiliation and violence in the first, recognition and salvation in the second.
Fifty-one years after the MPAA created the R rating, the first film with that rating passed $1 billion: Joker. The PG-13 rating had been introduced in 1984 after parents' backlash over the dark elements of films such as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Gremlins. It took 14 years for a PG-13 film to reach $1 billion; that film was Titanic (1997).
While Christopher Nolan had full support for the Joker in The Dark Knight, Todd Phillips had a very different experience. Warner Bros.' former boss was a major obstacle. In an interview with Michael Moore, Phillips said, "They put Walter Hamada in charge of DC. On paper this was crazy. We had just made Shazam! and Wonder Woman, they didn't want to break the formula. But the budget was so small that there was nothing to lose. In the end we made it for $60 million, for them it was like an independent film. So they let us go."
Joker bears similarities to films such as Taxi Driver (1976) and The King of Comedy (1982), as well as to Carrie (1976). Carrie White and Arthur Fleck are tragic characters driven to madness by horrifying family histories and a toxic society. Both are lonely, have abusive mothers, are bullied, kill their mothers, are humiliated at a public event and ultimately go mad and commit acts of violence.
In the scene where Arthur smothers his mother to death with a pillow in her hospital room, he says: 'I used to think that my life was a tragedy. But now I realize, it's a fucking comedy.' This line echoes Charlie Chaplin's remark that 'Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.'
Costume designer Mark Bridges designed Arthur's wardrobe from polyester and with the color palette of the early '80s. 'I imagined that he threw all his clothes into the washing machine together. We tried to give the feeling of a bad wash. These kinds of subtle choices tell the audience who the character is and how he lives,' he says.
Filming continued in New Jersey. During the shoot, which began on September 30 in Jersey City, Newark Avenue was closed to traffic; in November, Kennedy Boulevard was closed. Filming took place in Newark between October 13 and 16. During this time, a complaint reached SAG-AFTRA that extras had been locked in subway cars in Brooklyn for more than three hours, but the issue was resolved after a representative visited the set. At the end of October, Whigham said they were 'in the middle' of the film. In mid-November, filming returned to New York and was completed on December 3, 2018. Todd Phillips marked the moment with a photo on Instagram.
After Arthur discovers his mother's relationship with Thomas Wayne (around the 49th minute), Penny screams during an argument with him that he is going to kill her. Indeed, Arthur later does so.
Before the film was released, there was intense suspicion and anger in the mainstream media that it was 'very dangerous' and would 'incite violence.' The controversy grew so large that Warner Bros. barred most mainstream media outlets from attending the premiere in order to prevent unwanted questions directed at the cast and crew.
The iconic song to which Joker dances on the stairs is Gary Glitter's 'Rock 'N Roll Part 2.' The choice of the song caused great controversy after it emerged in the late '90s that Glitter was a sex offender and he was imprisoned for child sexual abuse.
All the clocks in the film show 11:11. Fans produced theories about Bible verses. When director Todd Phillips was asked about this idea, he said, 'It's a coincidence. I don't know. I think it's a coincidence.'
The film is full of references to previous Batman films: In the opening, as Arthur applies his makeup, Batman's facial features appear in the mirror. During his visit to Bruce, Bruce slides down a pole like Adam West's Batman. Arthur's line 'put on a happy face' is Jack Nicholson's line in Batman (1989). His leaning against the window in the police car resembles Heath Ledger's pose in The Dark Knight. And his being struck by an ambulance and placed in a police car is a tribute to Joker's death scene in the game Batman: Arkham City.
Joker is the first film based on a comic book to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
While Arthur is talking with Hoyte in his office (around 18 minutes), a clown image constantly appears just to the left of his shoulder. This shot emphasizes duality: while Arthur is belittled and driven toward madness, the demonic figure at his shoulder symbolizes him.
Adriano Giannini, who voices Arthur Fleck/Joker in the Italian version, had previously dubbed Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight. His father, Giancarlo Giannini, had voiced Jack Nicholson's Joker in the 1989 film Batman.
A suspect arrested for robbery and murder at a 2019 Halloween event in Reno, Nevada, claimed in custody that his name was Arthur Fleck. The perpetrator, whose real name was Juan Carlos Hernandez, had been dressed like the film's Joker while committing the crime.
Joker's height canonically ranges between 1.83 m and 1.96 m. In this film, Joaquin Phoenix, at 1.73 m, is the shortest actor to play Joker in a DC film. The others: Jack Nicholson 1.78 m, Jared Leto 1.80 m, Cameron Monaghan 1.83 m, Heath Ledger 1.85 m, Cesar Romero 1.91 m.
Robert De Niro confirmed that his role was a reference to his performance in The King of Comedy: "Obviously there's a connection, but not a direct one; the character I play is Rupert as a host years later."
The film entered the list of "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die," compiled by Steven Schneider.
This film is the second production in which Joker has a name other than the nickname 'Joker.' In Batman (1989), his real name was Jack Napier; here it is Arthur Fleck. This points to the character's mysterious past in the comics.
The film is the second comic book adaptation to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. The first was Black Panther (2018).
After the film's success, artist Joe Simko created a Garbage Pail Kid trading card in honor of Joaquin Phoenix and his character. The card, titled "Walking Joaquin," depicts a caricature of Arthur Fleck/Joker comically falling down the Joker stairs with makeup supplies scattered around him.
The character played by Sharon Washington is named Debra Kane; this is a tribute to Bob Kane, one of Batman's creators.
Several different versions of Arthur Fleck/Joker's appearance on the Murray Franklin Show were filmed. In the trailer, there was a brief shot in which Arthur is already dancing when the curtain opens.
In the scenes where Arthur is shirtless, the perfectly circular tattoo on Joaquin Phoenix's left bicep was digitally removed.
The film was not released in China; the Chinese film board had no political problem with it, but they found it too explicit. Warner Bros. refused to offer an edited version for the Chinese market. This resembled the rejection of Deadpool three years earlier.
The film's $96 million opening weekend gross surpassed the $92 million debut of It: Chapter Two, making it the best opening for an R-rated film in 2019. Both films were Warner Bros. productions.
Warner Bros., which had little faith in the film, brought in Bron Creative and Village Roadshow Pictures as co-producers. When the film unexpectedly grossed over $1 billion worldwide, the profits were shared among the three companies.
Two moments highlighting producer Gene Ufland, played by Marc Maron, were shot for the climactic scene but cut: In the first, Gene expresses his concerns to Murray about Arthur being on the show. In the second, Gene tries to cut the interview in which Arthur confesses to the subway murders, but Murray ignores him; Gene then watches in silent horror as Murray is killed.
The deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne are presented as a kind of karmic retribution. Thomas Wayne is a cold, elitist individual who treats Arthur horribly in the theater restroom. After Arthur kills Murray Franklin and sparks a riot, a protester decides to punish the Waynes for turning their backs on the poor. This time, Martha Wayne's pearl necklace is not stolen; it is taken as a keepsake after the couple is killed.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jared Leto was upset and complained that Warner Bros. was making a separate film from his own Joker. Warner announced a spin-off for Leto's Joker in 2018, but nothing came of it. A source said, "How do you play the Joker you established following [Joaquin Phoenix]? It ends [Leto's] Joker era." Leto played the Joker one last time for a cameo in Zack Snyder's Justice League.
When Arthur takes the subway to go to the Murray Franklin Show, one of the stops is Bedford Falls. This is the name of the town in It's a Wonderful Life.
Fight Club director David Fincher disliked the film and criticized it as a corporate franchise film that steals from other works: "I don't think anyone would look at that material and think, 'Let's take Travis Bickle and Rupert Pupkin and combine them, then betray the mentally ill and trap them, and make a billion dollars.'" He also added that major studios don't want to be in the business of mid-budget, challenging content.
The film, the first live-action Batman spin-off since Suicide Squad (2016), met moviegoers three years later by putting the Joker at its center.
While the story is set in October 1981, the film's release date was also October 2019, creating a subtle play on time between the narrative and reality.
The production held the title of the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time for five years, losing the record to Deadpool & Wolverine in 2024.
This is the only film among Bradley Cooper's nine Academy Award nominations in which he was not nominated as an actor; Cooper was involved as a producer in the production nominated for Best Picture.
Martin Scorsese said he did not watch the entire film and had no intention of watching it. The director, who stated that he does not consider superhero films 'cinema,' divided fans, some of whom saw it as hypocrisy for his name to be attached to a superhero film. Yet Warner Bros. only needed Scorsese's film crew for the production in New York. Scorsese told The New York Times, "I saw clips of it, I got it. Why would I watch it?"
One of three films released in 2019 that feature Stephen Sondheim songs despite not being musicals: In Marriage Story, Adam Driver sings 'Being Alive' and Scarlett Johansson sings 'You Could Drive a Person Crazy'; in Knives Out, Daniel Craig recites a portion of 'Losing My Mind'; and in Joker, the bullies who attack Arthur on the subway hum 'Send in the Clowns.'
Released 30 years after Batman (1989) and 53 years after Batman: The Movie (1966), the film was the second major Batman-themed theatrical production. The Joker was a key role in all three films.
The stairs that Arthur Fleck goes up and down repeatedly are a stepped street connecting Shakespeare and Anderson avenues on West 167th Street in the Bronx, New York; it is popularly known as the 'Joker Stairs.'
After Ghost World (2001), American Splendor (2003), A History of Violence (2005) and Logan (2017), it became the fifth comic book adaptation nominated for an Oscar in the Best Adapted Screenplay category.
Lady Gaga was considered for the role of Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises; now she will play Harley Quinn in the Joker sequel.
During the filming of C'mon C'mon, Joaquin Phoenix had to stop his young co-stars from calling him 'Joker.' According to director Mike Mills, the promotion for Joker had taken over all media at the time.
The multicolored curtains in Murray Franklin's stand-up scene are almost identical to the curtains on Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show.
Robert De Niro was considered for the roles of the Penguin in Batman Returns and Two-Face in Batman Forever; Zazie Beetz was among the names mentioned for the role of Catwoman in The Batman.
The character of Arthur Fleck/Joker was written with Joaquin Phoenix's acting traits in mind. Phoenix received the script at the end of 2017; even his mother had a say in whether he would take part in the film.
According to a theory that spread on social media, the film's third act is entirely a dying vision of Arthur's. It is claimed that Arthur gets into the refrigerator and tries to drown himself, and that this actually happens. Director Joe Russo said he found the idea 'interesting' but that it was not his.
Following the film's unexpected success and earlier hesitations, Warner Bros. announced that they would take more risks with R-rated film projects.
This success partly inspired Zack Snyder and James Gunn to create their own R-rated DC films, Zack Snyder's Justice League and The Suicide Squad.
Brett Cullen played the father of a superhero for the second time: Barton Blaze in Ghost Rider (whose son Johnny Blaze becomes Ghost Rider) and Thomas Wayne in Joker (whose son Bruce Wayne becomes Batman). Interestingly, the death of both fathers leads to the birth of the heroes.
After Arthur smothers his mother with a pillow in her hospital room, he stands by the window and closes his eyes; bathed in the light falling on him, he looks peaceful. This symbolizes the freedom he feels after killing the mother who lied to him his whole life and turned a blind eye to her own abuse.
The scene in which Arthur dances in a public restroom inspired comedic videos on TikTok in which the character dances whenever something 'bad' happens. Even composer Hildur Guðnadóttir's music was used in these videos.
Jack Nicholson's Joker also says 'Put on a happy face!' in the 1989 film Batman.
Joaquin Phoenix won the Best Actor Oscar for Joker. It was his third nomination in this category; the first two were for Walk the Line (2005) and The Master (2012). He had previously been nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Gladiator (2000).
IMDb.com chose Joker as the best film of 2019.
Hildur Guðnadóttir became the fourth woman to win the Best Original Score Oscar, for the music of Joker. Before her, Marilyn Bergman (Yentl, 1983), Rachel Portman (Emma, 1996) and Anne Dudley (The Full Monty, 1997) had achieved this feat.
At the beginning of the film, Arthur Fleck imagines appearing on the Murray Franklin Show and being welcomed by Franklin as a father figure. At the end of the film, he appears on the same program as the Joker and kills Franklin for mocking his failed stand-up routine at Pogo's Comedy Club. This symbolizes a psychopath's extreme emotions: capable of love, but capable of killing when betrayed by the same person.
Joker is the second R-rated comic book adaptation released in 2019. The year's first comic book film was Hellboy (2019).
Joker is director Todd Phillips's first drama film.
Joker is the second crime film directed by Todd Phillips. The first was the black comedy War Dogs (2016).
When Warner Bros. wanted to cancel the film, marketing executive Blair Rich fought hard for Joker. Before leaving the company, this film and It: Chapter Two (2019) ranked among Rich's greatest successes, despite several cinematic fiascos.
Brett Cullen played Thomas Wayne in Joker. It was his second Batman-themed film; the first was The Dark Knight Rises (2012), in which he played Congressman Gilley.
A total of 162 visual effects were used throughout the film.
Joker crossed the $1 billion mark a little over a month after its release.
After Arthur is fired from his job, while on the train (around the 31st minute), three Wayne Enterprises employees harass a woman. Arthur begins laughing uncontrollably and draws the men's attention. Before they surround and attack him, one of them starts singing "Send in the Clowns" from Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music". During the credits, Frank Sinatra's rendition of the song plays.
In the official trailer, the scene in which Arthur falls down the entrance steps of Wayne Hall, where Modern Times (1936) is being screened for Gotham's wealthy (1:35), and the scene in which Arthur walks down a corridor in his Joker costume with flowers in his left hand (2:03) were cut from the theatrical version.
In an interview in early 2020, director Joe Russo said he had been unable to see the film in theaters, which he attributed to his intense shooting schedule. When he finally watched it, he liked it very much, calling it "a beautiful piece of cinema" and drawing attention to its themes of existential loneliness and emotion.
The same street with the staircase, now known as the 'Joker Stairs', had previously been used in A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014), starring Liam Neeson.
In the talk show scene near the end of the film (around 1 hour 45 minutes), Arthur grows increasingly angry as he realizes that Murray Franklin is humiliating him and that the audience is judging him harshly. Just before killing Murray, he says, "I'll tell you what's going to happen!" On closer inspection, tears can be seen in Arthur's eyes, showing his suppressed sorrow.
Before killing Murray Franklin on live television at the end of the film (around 1 hour 45 minutes), Arthur was originally supposed to say, "What do you get when you cross a mentally ill loner with a system?" Instead, he uses the phrase "with a society".
Although the film does not explicitly state the year in which it is set, there is a significant clue that it takes place in 1981: during the riot scene, a poster for Wolfen (1981) is visible in front of a cinema. Wolfen, like this film, was a Warner Bros. production, a bleak and violent R-rated drama, and was released in 1981. Another clue is that at the beginning of the film, the radio announcer says it is Thursday, October 15.
Producer Bradley Cooper claimed he was heavily involved in post-production, particularly in the sound mixing.
Joaquin Phoenix earned approximately $4.5 million for the role of Arthur Fleck/Joker.
The film became the fourth DC production to surpass $1 billion worldwide; the previous ones were The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises and Aquaman.
The location used as Wayne Manor is the Stevenson Taylor Hall building of the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture, which also appeared in Batman Forever.
Although everyone Arthur kills has treated him badly, only the two traders on Wall Street posed a direct physical threat (they were shot while beating him). The other victims – the third trader, his mother Penny, Randall and Murray – were not a physical threat at the moment they died; but the third trader could identify him, Randall had legitimate suspicions about the gun, and Murray threatened to humiliate him and make him forgotten. If Arthur really did kill his psychiatrist at Arkham, it is similar to killing his mother: neither woman posed any threat to him. The psychiatrist shows no negative behaviour at all, which makes her death (if it is real) a complete anomaly in the film.
Joker became the first live-action Batman-themed film to receive an R rating.
Despite the R rating, the word 'fuck' is used only 27 times in the film.
Zazie Beetz (Sophie Dumond) and Brian Tyree Henry (Carl, the Arkham clerk) had previously appeared together on FX's Atlanta.
A month before the 2020 Oscars, director Todd Phillips summed up the film's success on Good Morning America with the words 'The audience came and the film became theirs.'
The film features many songs from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Phillips had similarly used popular songs of the era in his The Hangover films.
Joker became the sixth film to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar and gross $1 billion; the previous ones: Titanic, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Avatar, Toy Story 3 and Black Panther.
At the start of the film, the radio host says Thursday, October 15; this date points to the year 1981, because October 15 fell on a Thursday that year.
In the Zack Snyder's Justice League trailer, the first image of Jared Leto's Joker was a photograph in which his face was out of focus as he held a Joker card in a gloved hand. It was commented that this out-of-focus face resembled Joaquin Phoenix's Joker makeup.
Joker is the second Batman-themed film set in October. The first is Batman Forever, the third is The Batman. While Batman Forever and The Batman take place briefly in October and on Halloween, Joker begins in mid-October. For example, the radio host says October 15; in the following weeks, although it seems unrelated to Halloween, people wear clown masks. In Batman Forever, Alfred and Dr. Chase Meridian wish each other a Happy Halloween. The Batman opens on Halloween, and many people are in costume.
By mid-2020, the film had earned over $830 million worldwide, including cinema rentals, home entertainment and television.
According to Deadline Hollywood, Warner Bros. spent $120 million on the film's international promotion and advertising.
While Arthur rehearses coming out from behind the curtain on Murray's show in an old video tape recording (at about 1 hour 22 minutes), Murray's guest is introduced as Ethan Chase. The main character in Due Date (directed by Todd Phillips) is also named Ethan Chase (played by Zach Galifianakis, though he uses the name Ethan Tremblay).
In Gladiator, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) kills his father, Emperor Marcus Aurelius, by strangling him. In this film, Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) kills his mother by strangling her.
This film is the second production in which a live-action Joker has long hair. The first is Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight. The third is Jared Leto's second take on the Joker in Zack Snyder's Justice League. Leto's Joker had short hair in Suicide Squad. Chronologically, each Joker's hair is longer than the previous one's.
By mid-2020, the film had grossed $1.07 billion, surpassing the $1 billion of Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker.
Martin Ballantyne, who played Joker's henchman in The Dark Knight, stated that he chose not to repeat his role in this film.
The scene in which Joker shoots Murray Franklin may be a nod to a finishing move in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe (2008). In the game, Joker first pulls out a joke gun, a flag pops out, and then he shoots his opponent in the head with a real gun.
The spelling mistakes in Arthur's journal are striking: he writes 'cents' instead of 'sense' and 'stret' instead of 'street'. The note 'I hope my death makes more cents than my life' is a pun referring to the theme of poverty. Ironically, 'mental illness' is spelled correctly.
Promotional stills for the film included a scene in which Arthur meets Randall on the street in his clown costume, but it was cut from the theatrical version.
Joker broke Venom's (2018) October opening record with $96 million, leaving its $80.25 million behind.
On Murray's talk show, Arthur says he killed three Wall Street employees 'because they were awful.' He signals the murder by telling Murray, 'You're awful too, Murray,' in response to his criticism, and finishes the job a minute later.
In 2019, the first film Robert De Niro appeared in was Joker; the second was The Irishman, released a month later. Both won major awards.
Joaquin Phoenix is Casey Affleck's former brother-in-law. Casey was married to Joaquin's sister Summer from 2003 to 2017 and is Ben Affleck's brother. Ben played Batman; thus the Joker and Batman actors became related by marriage for the first time.
Joker's journal was written in languages such as English, Italian, French and Spanish for international screenings. This is a nod to Steve Rogers's journal in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
The film was released in May 2019, exactly 80 years after Batman was introduced in Detective Comics #27.
Joker became Warner Bros.' seventh film to cross the $1 billion mark ($1.074 billion). The previous ones: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Aquaman, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Dark Knight.
It was the best-selling home entertainment film of 2020 in the United Kingdom: it sold more than 1.4 million copies across DVD, Blu-ray, digital sales and rentals.
The film's logo was created by graphic designer Chad Danieley using a hand-operated wooden type press and then digitized.
Joker was the last collaboration between Bradley Cooper and Todd Phillips before their producing partnership ended in 2021.
In the opening scene, as Arthur applies his makeup, an embroidered pillow reading 'YOU LOOK GREAT!' hangs above the mirror. This implies that Saturday Night Live exists in the DC universe.
The three Wall Street employees Arthur kills on the subway are not named in the film or in the 2024 sequel; the script refers to them only as the 'Wall Street Trio.'
As of April 2026, it is the fourth most-watched film on Letterboxd alongside The Truman Show, with 6.4 million viewing logs. The ranking: Interstellar (7.2 million), Fight Club and Barbie (7.1 million), Parasite (6.8 million).
Boris Rehlinger, who voices Joker in the French dub, had also voiced Batman in Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad and Justice League.
Joker is the highest-grossing film ever to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
It is Brian Tyree Henry's second comic book film and his first live-action comic book film. The first was Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (voice role), the third was Eternals (Phastos).
The name Murray Franklin may have been derived from 1970s talk show hosts Joe Franklin and Maury Povich. The writers chose the name Murray in order not to use Maury directly.
Joker overtook Meet the Fockers (2004) to become Robert De Niro's highest-grossing film.
Among the actors who have played Joker, Heath Ledger, Jared Leto and Joaquin Phoenix have tattoos; Jack Nicholson and Cesar Romero are the exceptions.
There are striking similarities between Arthur Fleck's transformation into Joker in the second half of the film and The Weeknd's 'Blinding Lights' video: maroon suits, bloodied smiles, dancing one's way into trouble and a state of satisfaction despite injury.
Joaquin Phoenix had appeared alongside Sir Michael Caine in Quills (2000). The two later took part in DC Comics adaptations: Caine as Alfred in The Dark Knight trilogy, and Phoenix as Joker in this film.
The film shares its name with Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo's 2008 graphic novel of the same title. In the novel, a con man named Johnny becomes Joker's man and is driven to madness under the weight of his crimes.
The scene in which Joker dances on the stairs (around 1h 30m) inspired countless memes of the character dancing to different music.
This film is one of five films that appear in the IMDb Top 250 and were nominated for a Razzie; the others are The Shining, The Thing, Scarface and Batman Begins. None of them won the award.
It is Mick Szal's first film.
The scene in which Arthur pulls a bouquet of flowers from his sleeve (at the 52nd minute) is a nod to the 'Put On A Happy Face' musical number in Bye Bye Birdie.
Joker became the second comic book film to win the Oscar for Best Original Score after Black Panther. Superman, Men in Black, Road to Perdition, The Adventures of Tintin and Black Panther had previously been nominated in this category.
Independent directors Ana Lily Amirpour, Kelly Fremon Craig and Alex Ross Perry are among the film's unexpected fans.
This is the second DC film whose lead character is named Arthur; the first was Aquaman (Arthur Curry).
The Morpheus costume on the poster for The Matrix Resurrections was likened to Joker's maroon suit, gold vest and green shirt with the collar turned up. Morpheus's costume is a darker maroon and features a long overcoat.
It is the fifth highest-grossing drama film at the domestic box office; ahead of it are Titanic, The Passion of the Christ, Michael (2026) and American Sniper.
Joaquin Phoenix is the third actor to play Joker whose name begins with 'J'; the previous ones were Jack Nicholson and Jared Leto.
Douglas Hodge is the first actor to play Alfred with a beard since Alan Napier in Batman (1966).
It is the highest-grossing film worldwide to win the Oscar for Best Actor; the previous record belonged to Heath Ledger's The Dark Knight.
The real ages of all the key actors are proportionate to their roles; the only exception is that there is at least a ten-year gap between Joker and a young Bruce Wayne.
The stairs Joaquin Phoenix dances on became a tourist attraction. After visitors reenacted the scene in Joker costumes, following complaints from local residents, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned against repeating the dance.
Joker is the fourth comic book adaptation to win a Grammy in the Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media category; the previous ones were Superman, The Dark Knight and Black Panther.
It became the fifth film to pass $200 million worldwide in its opening weekend without opening in China. The previous ones: Fifty Shades of Grey (2015), Deadpool (2016), Suicide Squad (2016) and Deadpool 2 (2018). The Dark Knight (2008) came within $300,000 of this threshold.
The film received a B+ from CinemaScore; this is the lowest grade among films that have grossed $1 billion worldwide. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) and Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019) share the same grade.
A voice is heard calling out to Arthur from a distance: "ARTHUR!" before he climbs the stairs, and "HAPPY!" as he takes the scissors from the drawer. Arthur does not respond. These voices most likely belong to Detective Burke and Penny Fleck.
It is the ninth highest-grossing film on the IMDb Top 250 list. Ahead of it are Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Top Gun: Maverick, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Jurassic Park and The Dark Knight Rises.
While the film received eleven Academy Award nominations, its sequel Joker: Folie à Deux (2024) received none. This is the record for the most Oscar nominations for a film whose sequel received no nominations; Chinatown (1974) and Terms of Endearment (1983) share the same distinction (their sequels The Two Jakes and The Evening Star received no nominations).