Art the Clown’s had no shortage of kills in the “Terrifier” horror franchise, and now he’s added The Joker, Beetlejuice and the Transformers to the carnage.

“Terrifier 3″ is the number-one movie in America right now.

According to film reviews/news website Rotten Tomatoes, the splatter-fest took in a debut weekend gross of $18 million, besting: animated sci-fi “The Wild Robot” ($13.4 million, $83.7 million to date), “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” ($7 million, $275 million to date), “Joker: Folie à Deux” ($7 million, $51.6 million over two weeks) and musician/producer Pharrell Williams’ animated biopic “Piece By Piece” ($3.8 million in its first week).

For Oct. 11 – 13, “Transformers One,” an animated prequel to the robot-toy-inspired action franchise, clocks in at number six ($3.6 million, $52.8 million to date).

Actor David Howard Thornton, a Huntsville native, portrays sadistic jester Art the Clown in the “Terrifier” franchise.

On Sunday, Thornton posted on social media, “My mind is blown. Never in my life would I have imagined my film would beat out a film about my favorite villain, the Joker, at the box office, let alone, be the number one film in America. Thank you all that came out to support our little indie film that could. You made history this weekend!”

In a recent interview with Games Radar, Thornton expressed his interest in one day taking on the role of Joker, the iconic Batman archnemesis from DC Comics.

“So hopefully,” Thornton told Games Radar, “someone like [DC Studios CEO] James Gunn gives me the opportunity to tackle that character because I would like to do a lot of fun things with him.”

As a child, Thornton’s prized possessions included a Joker action-figure. A photo on his Facebook page depicts Thornton reenacting The Joker cover art from legendary 1988 graphic novel “Batman: The Killing Joke.”

The “Terrifier” franchise is famously gory. After the 2022 “Terrifier 2″ release, outlets like Entertainment Weekly, People and Variety have run stories about moviegoers literally vomiting and fainting in theaters from watching Art’s kill scenes.

But what makes the 6-foot-2 Thornton’s portrayal so effective is a pinch of physical comedy he brings to the character.

In our 2022 AL.com interview, Thornton told me, “I think comedy and horror are two genres where you’re supposed to always be pushing the envelope, and trying new things and seeing where you can go forward things. No pun intended, but art isn’t supposed to be safe.”

For Art the Clown, Thornton takes inspiration from comedy actors Charlie Chaplin and Rowan Atkinson, in addition to horror villains like actor Robert Englund’s Freddy Krueger.

The budget for “Terrifier 3″ was reportedly only $2 million. The budget for “Terrifier 2″ was only around $250,000.

Still, Art the Clown has slashed his way into pop-culture. In 2023, actor/comedian Pete Davidson, one of the most famous people in the world, was seen wearing an Art the Clown t-shirt.

Asked about the appeal of smaller-budget horror films like “Terrifier,” Thornton, now a Burbank, Calif. resident, told me, “The people making these films are actually the fans of the genre. It’s not some, you know, Hollywood executive just trying to make a quick money grab or something like that.”

A Grissom High School grad, Thornton’s other credits include the lead role in 2023 Grinch horror parody “The Mean One.”

Growing up in Huntsville, Thornton fell in love with acting doing children’s theater at Fantasy Playhouse. Halloween costumes Thornton wore in his youth include a red crayon, a mummy, and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

Later, Thornton got a degree in elementary education from University of Montevallo, a liberal arts school located in central Alabama. Yep, Art the Clown could’ve been your kid’s elementary school teacher.