Todd Phillips’ Joker is on track to break the worldwide box office record for an R-rated film, after making $107 million on its third weekend. 

Generating a total of $738M in box office revenue, as of now, this highly praised and anticipated DC Comic origin story is expected to surpass Deadpool’s $783M tally in 2016.

After the release of its teaser trailer in April, both the film and lead actor Joaquin Phoenix’s performance became a juggernaut of hype and excitement for common moviegoers. However, extreme concerns were voiced by the FBI, local law enforcement, and journalists around the country regarding the possible dangers in theaters with the film’s impact on violence and gun use.

Thankfully, audience members have decided to merely watch the movie without any violent conflicts erupting in the theaters. Deadline News attributes much of Joker’s financial success and lack of violence in theaters to Phoenix’s “transcendent performance,” that has earned him more Academy Award buzz than anyone else thus far in 2019.

The greatest factor in this potential box record is the marketing department of Warner Bros, that began to sell and promote the film before a single frame was shot.

Based on its rate, Joker is expected to gross over $900M worldwide and has redefined “the conventional wisdom about what makes a box-office hit” per Forbes.