Box Office Tracking: 'Joker' Likely To Beat Both 'Gemini Man' And 'The Addams Family'

Box Office Tracking: ‘Joker’ Likely To Beat Both ‘Gemini Man’ And ‘The Addams Family’

Two new wide-release movies are headed to theaters this weekend: Ang Lee’sGemini Man, and the rather terrible-looking animatedAddams Familymovie. But it looks like the Clown Prince of Crime will continue to reign, as box office tracking indicates thatJokeris expected to remain in first place. Not even two Will Smiths and cartoon Oscar Issac are enough to stop Joaquin Phoenix and his weird dance moves.

Can anyone stop the dark and twistedJoker? Apparently not – at least not at the box office.Varietyreports that this weekend’s two big openers –Gemini ManandThe Addams Family– are both unlikely to dethrone Todd Phillips' violent R-rated comic book flick. Same goes for the comedyJexi, which I’m not sure anyone even realizes is coming out this weekend.

Gemini Manis expected to earn $24 million and $29 million from 3,600 venues, whileThe Addams Familyis looking at an opening weekend of $21 million to $27 million from 4,007 venues.Joker, meanwhile, is likely to score $42 million to $48 million in its second weekend at the box office. As forJexi, the box office is poised to be between $2 million to $7 million (ouch).The Addams Familyis likely to appeal to family audiences, even though the marketing for the movie has been rather drab, and it’s hard to get excited for the film even though it boasts the vocal talents of  Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloe Grace Moretz, and Finn Wolfhard.Gemini Manis likely to be a harder sell. The movie is banking on Will Smith’s movie stat status, and the use of digital trickery to have Smith go up against a younger version of himself. Butreviewsfor the movie have been overwhelmingly negative – it’s sitting at34% on Rotten Tomatoesright now. This poor word-of-mouth won’t do Ang Lee’s action pick any favors.

All of this is good news forJoker. I’ll confess that I thoughtJokerwouldn’t have legs, and would likely have a steep drop-off during its second weekend. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. It’s already earned a global box office haul of $248 million, and that number is only going to go up after this weekend. In short, audiencesreallywant to watch Joaquin Phoenix smear his face with make-up and then murder people.

Next weekend sees the release ofJojo Rabbit,Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, andZombieland: Double Tap. There’s a good chance one of those titles will finally knockJokerout of the top spot, but we’ll have to wait and see.