Yes or no?

No.

No.

This is a silly question. Otherwise a movie called Joker would open bigger than a movie called The Batman, which did not happen.

It's going to make a hell of a lot less worldwide. Also, Batman will probably open under the first Suicide Squad.

Just doesn't seem like Batman is that big of a deal without him. Joker has somehow become more relatable. We live in a society!

It is true that Joker will definitely outperform it WW (and from what I'm seeing, definitely outopened it OS), though I'm not sure how much of that has to do with the character and how much has to do with, well, the movie. Joker was much more of a novelty and basically an instant cult hit with awards support to go with it.

I mean...there is an argument to be made that Joaquin's Joker is more popular than Pattinson's Batman, but I don't really think the icon itself is more popular.

I don't think this is a bad question. Most of the Batman and universe movies that have been the most iconic have featured the Joker:

Batman 1
The Dark Knight
Joker

Batman is at his best when he's facing the Joker IMO.

overall BATMAN is the most popular and will be forever

Honestly kind of. Suicide Squad wouldn't have done a third of what it did without the Joker, he was the main draw and the fact that he was just a cameo was one of the main reasons audiences hated it. They felt cheated by the marketing. Batman '89 and The Dark Knight were by far the most attended films in the franchise and the main marketing hook was the Joker. Batman is boring next to him.

And if you need more proof, 'The Batman' is not going to outgross 'Joker'. Yeah COVID I know, but look at Spider-Man, comic book films don't seem to be affected by it anymore.

Also feels more relevant as a character whenever he appears tbh. All the memes around 'The Dark Knight' (remember "why so serious?") revolved around the Joker. When that crazy guy shot up the theatre he was dressed as the Joker and told police he was the Joker (not exactly the kind of cultural impact you want, but cultural impact nonetheless!). 'Joker' instantly became a meme factory with "we live in a society!", the dance on the stairs, there was just way more conversation around that film than any of the recent Batman outings.

I think it comes down to audiences finding a psychotic villain/anti-hero hellbent on pure chaos to be more interesting than rich-guy-becomes-crime-fighter. Everyone feels like being the Joker at some point, just wanting to burn it all down and not give a fuck.

Eh they are close, Joker is def. really popular though

No