Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Joker lock horns for No 1 spot at BO

After smashing all records, the Joachim Ronning directorial Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and Joaquin Phoenix starrer Joker is battling at the box office to secure No. 1 position.

Washington: The two latest releases, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and Joker, are competing for the No 1 position as both are smashing box-office records.

If news reports are to be believed, the Joaquin Phoenix starrer is estimated to rake in about USD 19 million in its fourth weekend while the film starring Angelina Jolie is projected to earn about USD 18.3 million in its second week.

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil minted USD 4.82 million on Friday while Joker yielded USD 5.4 million, which seems to hint that the later might end up winning the spot.

The gritty drama Joker starring Phoenix in the titular role has so far totalled USD 258 million domestically for Warner Bros. with an additional USD 512 million overseas.

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Filmmaker Todd Philipps garnered controversy ahead of its release for its sympathetic depiction of the villain, from a script he co-wrote with Scott Silver.

The film also stars Zazie Beetz, Robert De Niro, and Frances Conroy. Recently the film surpassed Deadpool 2 as the highest-grossing R-rated movie worldwide.

On the other hand, Disney's Maleficent sequel has earned USD 51.7 million through Friday. Jolie returned to her role in the film alongside Elle Fanning.

Meanwhile, 'Black and Blue' is launching with about USD 8.2 million from 2,062 locations, which could land it at the No 5 slot. The action thriller reeled in about USD 3 million on Friday.