‘Joker: Folie à Deux‘ has made history by becoming the first Hollywood comic book movie to earn a D cinema score from the audience. The film was hyped a lot for being darker than ever with a musical touch to it, but it failed to make up for the hype.
The polls for the movie are grim, to say the least, as the audience is expressing unhappiness with the sequel. Their disappointment is translating into bad box office numbers, delivering a shock for the fans of its iconic sequel, ‘Joker’. Here’s what the numbers say.
‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Brings In Disappointing Numbers
‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ saw a highly anticipated big-screen release on October 2, but crashed badly at the box office. The Warner Bros. movie was expected to be one of the biggest hits of the year, given a stellar record and an Oscar win by its predecessor released in 2019. However, the numbers tell an entirely different story.
The divisive sequel earned a soft $20 million on Friday, including $7 million in previews, for a projected launch south of $50 million. Rival studios show the Joaquin Phoenix-Lady Gaga film opening anywhere from $42 million to $47 million.
Heading into the weekend, ‘Joker 2′ was expected to do $50 million to $60 million. That was down from the $70 million expected three weeks ago. The numbers are way less when compared to the 2019 ‘Joker’ movie which debuted with a dreamy $96.2 million on its way to a record-shattering worldwide total of $1 billion.
The numbers right now are more worrisome than Thursday’s night gross terrible exit scores on Post Trak, with the audience giving it a half-star out of five — similar to the Thursday night score for Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Megalopolis’ which bombed spectacularly last weekend with $4 million after earning a D+ Cinema Score. Even the superhero movies that don’t work usually earn a decent Cinema score than this.
‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Still Hopes To Be A Major Player In The Oscars Race
Regardless of the box office performance, ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ still hopes to be a major player in the Oscars race, particularly for Pheonix and Gaga’s performance. Overseas, ‘Joker 2‘ opened everywhere this weekend, except for Japan and China, where it will launch in the coming weeks. Warners is hoping for a foreign debut of $80 million to $85 million.
The first ‘Joker’ cost just $55 million to produce before marketing. After its success, director Todd Phillips was given a net production budget of $190 million to $200 million for the second installment. Part of that went to bringing Gaga in a role inspired by the comic book character Harley Quinn.
In case you missed it: Todd Phillips Declares The End Of Joker Era With ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’
While 2019’s ‘Joker’ earned comparisons to the earlier works of Martin Scorsese, the sequel is a far slower journey that focuses on the interior lives of its two leads. Critics have praised the movie’s overall beauty, its performances, and its crafts but dinged it for its narrative.
