10 Movies People Initially Thought Were A Joke

Todd Phillips is a filmmaker who is best known for comedy movies, most notably The Hangover and its two sequels. Each movie raked in millions at the box office despite varying levels of quality and, as a result, Phillips was chosen by Warner Bros. to write, produce and direct a film about DC's most chaotically violent villain: The Joker.

At first, people were very unsure about a Joker film being made by Phillips as, to date, the only mature film he had ever directed was a documentary about GG Allin; the rest were all comedies in some form or another. The fact that Joaquin Phoenix was confirmed to play the iconic character didn't help with public opinion either. Everybody mocked the film, thinking it was never going to work with these two at the helm.

However, when it was finally released, Joker was so well-received that the character became a cultural icon once more. People loved the film, so much so that there was controversy when it didn’t win the Academy Award for best picture. It turns out that despite the joking and the mocking, Joker was in safe hands with Phillips and Phoenix as it made literal billions at the box office and won a cavalcade of awards. As a result, Phoenix is now an in-demand actor once again, and Phillips is setting up to do the same thing with Hulk Hogan for his next venture.