Where Is All the ‘Joker’ Movie Merch?

By Joseph Myers

With domestic returns having hit nearly $250 million as of Sunday, “Joker” is proving a colossal success for the action and crime movie genres, but it is doing little to assist the promotional products industry. That is due to a dearth of goods to drive further interest in Joaquin Phoenix’s turn as the DC Comics supervillain, with the lack leading one to wonder if fans will have to laugh off their commercial frustration and devote their consumerism to other characters and films.

IGN offers a comprehensive look at the abundance of goods connected with other versions and portrayals of Batman’s nemesis, and the puzzling decision not to inundate the commercial market with new commodities. Is the material in the Todd Phillips-directed release too complex or controversial to inspire the general public’s interest in plunking down big bucks? The article looks at that possibility and hopes that will not be the case, especially since other intense creations have not gone without some promotional push. Might the goods be on the horizon? If that is the case, again, we could point to a precedent, as we here in Philadelphia—a city not known for fostering excessive patience—needed to be content with sitting on our hands in anticipation of Gritty goodies.

Why is Joker missing from the plethora of comic book-based merchandise? We dig into the mystery: https://t.co/ktnQYyqjcD pic.twitter.com/UpyirjZjZR

— IGN (@IGN) October 19, 2019

Frankly, we had thought the market would be teeming with promotional means to celebrate yet another look at the Joker as a mercurial and maniacal character. But, unless something happens incredibly soon, end-users, as the IGN article’s author states, who are looking to celebrate the madman by being him for Halloween will have to become creative and craft their own costumes. While they can certainly do that with not too much effort, they can’t fashion other promotional goods that they might covet. It seems, therefore, that the marketing folks affiliated with the expansion of the "Joker" universe have chosen to channel another Batman adversary, the Riddler, as no member of the general public knows if "Joker" goods are coming. For now, fans are left to bemoan the situation and come up with concepts about what new merch might look like.

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