This is not a joke. It’s a flop.
Todd Phillips’ sequel, Joker: Folie à Deuxfailed at the box office in its debut with an estimated $40 million opening in the United States, well below expectations
The new Joker is the first Hollywood superhero film in history to receive a CinemaScore D from the public. Post-release polls are equally negative, with audiences expressing their discontent with this mashup of anti-hero and musical, which grossed less than half of what the original debuted. Joker.
The film starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga was expected to open to at least $50-60 million, but projections were continually scaled back over the weekend. Even on Saturday, most competing studios were forecasting an opening of at least $45-47 million. And let’s not forget that when the Warner Bros. film began tracking three weeks ago, it was expected to gross $70 million. The person responsible for this unexpected decline: terrible word of mouth.
All’estero, Joker 2 debuted everywhere over the weekend except Japan and China, where it will be released in the next few weeks. Warner was hoping for an $80-$85 million international debut, but foreign grosses were not immediately available.
In 2019, the first Joker by Phillips debuted to a stunning $96.2 million in North America, reaching a record-breaking worldwide total of $1 billion. The film received relatively good reviews, with a B+ CinemaScore from audiences. On Rotten Tomatoes, it earned a score of 68%, compared to a paltry 33%. Folie à Deux.
Phillips’ polarizing, R-rated sequel, which made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, is a music-infused, mixed-genre film that strays from the typical fan comic book movie. In addition to the D CinemaScore, the negative scores on PostTrak are also worrying, with audiences giving it just half a star out of five, similar to early scores from Megalopolis by Francis Ford Coppola, which failed with a spectacular $4 million gross last weekend, after earning a D+ CinemaScore.
Even superhero movies that don’t work at the box office usually get decent CinemaScores. The Marvels Marvel Studios, which debuted to a disappointing $46.2 million last year, received a B CinemaScore. The same goes for Warner’s film The Flashwhich opened to a problematic $55 million in the U.S. and earned a B CinemaScore.
While the Joker 2019 was compared to the early works of Martin Scorsese, the sequel is a much slower journey, which focuses on the interior lives of its two protagonists. Critics praised the film’s overall beauty, performances and technical aspects, but criticized the plot. “For a film that lasts two and a quarter hours, Folie à Deux seems narratively a bit weak and at times boring,” wrote David Rooney, the leading film critic of The Hollywood Reporterfrom Venice.
The film still hopes to be a major Oscar contender, particularly for Phoenix and Gaga’s performances.
Joker: Folie à Deux reunites Phillips with Phoenix, who returns to the lead role after winning the Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Arthur Fleck/Joker. Neither Phillips nor Phoenix were sure they wanted to make a sequel and, for a time, considered putting on a Broadway show before finally committing to the film.
The first Joker it only cost $55 million before marketing. Following its success, Phillips was given a net production budget of $190-200 million for the second installment. Part of that budget was earmarked to bring Lady Gaga on board, in a role inspired by the comic book character Harley Quinn (the filmmakers hope it will appeal to female viewers).
Much of the film consists of fictional musical numbers featuring the pair, who meet while Arthur is in Arkham Asylum, awaiting trial for his crimes from the first film. However, neither Warner nor Phillips feel comfortable calling it a full-fledged musical, as only two characters sing, whereas in a traditional musical many people usually participate in the musical numbers.
The studio’s promotional materials avoided highlighting the film’s numerous musical sequences, just as they had done with Wonkaan official musical. Warner isn’t alone; Paramount also didn’t promote Mean Girls like a musical.
Phillips is well aware that the sequel is unconventional, as it does not fully follow the conclusion of the first Jokerwhere Arthur embraces his alter ego. At the Los Angeles premiere last Monday, Phillips thanked the studio “for taking such a bold step,” adding, “It’s not necessarily the sequel you might expect.”
