Ryan Reynolds trolls Joker after it beats Deadpool's box office record

Todd Phillips' new supervillain blockbuster Joker may have divided critics sharply down the middle but its popularity with audiences can't be denied.

The thriller, starring Joaquin Phoenix as angry, introverted street clown and would-be comedian Arthur Fleck who turns to a life of crime in Gotham City, has just broken the record to become the highest-grossing R-rated film in Hollywood history, surpassing the $783m (£609m) made by Deadpool in 2016, with a cool $788.3m (£613m) in ticket sales so far.

Despite concerns about its glamorising "incel" violence and borrowing extensively from Martin Scorsese's back catalogue, a debt the film openly acknowledges in its casting of Robert De Niro, Joker has proven a huge hit in cinemas and had already claimed the biggest October opening of all time, beating the record set last year by another comics property, Venom.

Fans have been flocking to the Bronx stairwell where a key scene takes place and the film has already generated more than its fair share of memes.

Deadpool, of course, prided itself on its snarky sense of humour and its star, Ryan Reynolds, wasted no time in issuing a very on-brand congratulatory message to the filmmakers.

Fans of Deadpool are already anticipating the inclusion of jokes at the expense of Phillips' rather self-important treatise on our uncaring contemporary world in the next Wade Wilson outing.

Others noted the irony of self-censoring while celebrating an R-rated film...

...while some single-issue diehards saw a tenuous opportunity to campaign for their pet cause: the release of the Zach Snyder cut of DC's disastrous Justice League film.

“Is it me, or are things getting worse out there?”

HT The Poke

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