With some cheering it on and others anxiously holding their breath, Hollywood’s latest comic book movie, “Joker,” laughed its way to the bank this weekend, opening to robust ticket sales and signaling to Warner Bros. that a risky move had paid off.

“Joker” sold about $93.5 million in domestic tickets this weekend. The movie made an additional $140.5 million overseas, according to Warner Bros.

“This is a very strong opening,” David A. Gross, a movie consultant, wrote in a report this weekend.

Moviegoers’ embrace of “Joker” came amid a heated debate over whether Warner Bros. was being irresponsible by releasing it.

The R-rated film starring Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker, the DC Comics villain, tells an origin story for the character, showing how his homicidal anger grew out of intense isolation and rejection. Some worried that the movie, rather than critiquing societal issues, might instead be painting an overly sympathetic portrait of a man whose descent into brutal villainy echoes the back stories of actual mass shooters.