The craziness...
Why does this movie stay?
Been weeks, still up in the numbers.
Inadvertantly let loose freedom?
Similar to early Saw movies?
I think people underestimate this movie. Yeah, in some ways it was average. The script/story were flawed
But it was also a pretty bold and unique movie. The Joker is a goldmine of an IP. Superhero movies in general are big bucks. So to make a movie that works completely as a "prestige" crime drama AND is also a comic book movie has never been done before. It was pretty ballsy on the part of Todd Phillips
In some sense it sort of mirrors the success of Nolan's Batman movies. The Batman IP had become a joke after Batman & Robin, so WB gave Nolan plenty of latitude in doing his own thing. Similarly, Justice League and Suicide Squad tanked the credibility of Batman and especially the Joker. So Phillips got lots of creative freedom because anything was better than moving forward with Jared Leto's version of the Joker
But unlike Nolan's TDK movies, Joker was a hard-R film. The Dark Knight, Logan, and other "fine" superhero movies had big blockbuster set-pieces. Joker didn't This movie is the first of its kind, and that in itself is its own kind of spectacle. It is a landmark film for what is currently the most popular movie genre (comic book movies) in the world