Todd Phillips' dark and grimy imagining of the classic comic-book villain has now passed into box office history.

This weekend, 'Joker' became the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time, passing $783 million and toppling the record previously held by 'Deadpool 2', starring Ryan Reynolds and Josh Brolin. In fact, Reynolds even shared a congratulatory post on his Twitter when the news broke yesterday.

Previous record holders include 'The Matrix Revolutions', 'The Passion of the Christ', 'The Hangover Part III' (which was also directed by Phillips), and 'Logan', another gritty comic-book adaptation.

Meanwhile, with awards season beginning to ramp up, Joaquin Phoenix is now the bookies' favourite and is currently 4/9, while the next closest bet is Adam Driver in Netflix's 'Marriage Story'.

'Joker' is still selling out in some cinemas, and the likelihood is that it could very well cross the billion-dollar mark before it leaves cinema, which would be a huge achievement not just for Todd Phillips, but for smaller-budget movies like this.