This is no joke.
Todd Phillips‘ sequel Joker: Folie à Deux bombed in its box office debut with an estimated domestic opening of $40 million, well behind expectations after becoming the the first Hollywood comic book movie in history to earn a D CinemaScore from audiences. Exit polls are equally as grim as audiences express their unhappiness with the antihero-musical mashup, which did less than half of the business the first Joker did in its launch despite costing more than three times as much to make, or $190 million.
The Joaquin Phoenix–Lady Gaga pic was expected to open to at least $50 million to $60 million, but projections were continually downgraded throughout the weekend as traffic stalled. Even on Saturday, most rival studios showed it opening to at least $45 million to $47 million. And don’t forget that when the Warner Bros. movie first came on tracking three weeks ago, it was pacing to earn $70 million.
Overseas, Joker 2 opened to $81.1 million, in line with expectations for a global debt of $121.1 million. While the overseas result provided some relief, it’s still notably behind the first Joker. The sequel opened everywhere save for Japan and China, where it launches in the coming weeks.
The culprit behind the unfortunate turn-of-events: terrible word of mouth. Hence, rival studios believe the final domestic number could actually be in the $37 million to $39 million range when final grosses are reported Monday. Warner Bros. insiders say there is no way to sugarcoat the results, and that the studio is stunned and sorely disappointed. At the same time, they believe Phillips is a creative genius and worthy of gambling on.
In 2019, Phillips’ Joker debuted to a dreamy $96.2 million in North America on its way to a record-shattering worldwide total of $1 billion against a $55 million budget. It remained the top-grossing R-rated film of all time domestically and globally until Deadpool & Wolverine came along. Joker earned relatively good reviews, while audiences gave it a B+ CinemaScore. It’s critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes is a fresh 68 percent, compared to a rotten 33 percent for Foile à Deux.
Phillips’ polarizing, R-rated sequel — which made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival — is a genre-busting, music-infused film that strays outside the comfort zone of the typical fanboy-fueled comic book pic. Just as worrisome as the D CinemaScore are terrible exit scores on PostTrak, with audiences giving it a half-star out of five, similar to the early scores for Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, which bombed in spectacular fashion last weekend with $4 million after earning a D+ CinemaScore. (Joker‘s PostTrak could change by the time the weekend wraps.)
Even superhero — or antihero — movies that don’t work at the box office usually earn decent CinemaScores. Marvel Studios’ The Marvels, which opened to a dismal $46.2 million last year, earned a B. Ditto for fellow Warners’ film The Flash, which opened to a problematic $55 million domestically and also received a B CinemaScore. Both movies were considered major bombs.
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. “For a movie running two-and-a-quarter hours, Folie à Deux feels narratively a little thin and at times dull,” wrote The Hollywood Reporter‘s chief film critic David Rooney out of Venice.
The movie still hopes to be a major player in the Oscars race, particularly for Phoenix and Gaga’s performances.
Joker: Folie à Deux reunites Phillips with Phoenix, who returns in the titular role after winning the Oscar for best actor for his portrayal of Arthur Fleck/Joker. Neither Phillips nor Phoenix was sure about making a sequel and, for a time, contemplated putting on a Broadway show instead, before ultimately committing to the movie and bringing aboard Gaga in a role inspired by the comic book character Harley Quinn.
Much of the film consists of fantasy musical numbers starring the couple, who meet while Arthur is in Arkham Asylum, awaiting trial for his crimes from the first movie. However, neither Warners nor Phillips is comfortable calling it a straight-up musical, given that only two of the characters sing, versus a traditional musical, which usually has scores of people participating in the numbers.
The studio’s marketing materials have steered clear of highlighting the film’s numerous musical sequences, just as they did when selling Wonka, an official musical. Warners isn’t alone; Paramount also didn’t market Mean Girls as a musical.
Phillips is well aware that the sequel is unorthodox, as it doesn’t fully follow through on the ending of Joker, which sees Arthur embrace his alter ego. At the Los Angeles premiere last Monday, Phillips thanked the studio “for taking such a bold swing,” adding, “It is not necessarily the sequel you might expect.”
The Joker sequel is part of the DC Elseworlds brand, which allows for stories set outside of the shared DC Universe being crafted by DC Studios chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran. Rather, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Bros. co-chiefs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy ran point on the movie (there isn’t a DC logo on the film.)
Folie à Deux can still claim victory in winning the weekend and helping power overall revenue ahead of the same weekend last year, according to Comscore chief box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “The film though had a massive, reported budget that makes such a creative gamble a tougher situation to reconcile,” he noted.
Elsewhere, DreamWorks Animation and Universal’s The Wild Robot held well in its second weekend, placing second with $18.7 million for a domestic total of $63.9 million and jumping the $100 mark globally.
Warners’ box office hit Beetlejuice Beetlejuice cleared the $400 million threshold in its fifth weekend. It came in third domestically with $10.3 million for a North American tally of $265.5 million and $402.6 million worldwide.
Paramount’s family friendly animated Transformers One came in fourth domestically in its third weekend with $5.4 million for a domestic total of $47.2 million and $97 million worldwide.
Blumhouse and Universal’s Speak No Evil rounded out the top five domestically with $2.8 million for a North American cume of $32.6 million and $67.4 million worldwide.
You Tube stars Sam and Colby’s new movie The Legends of the Paranormal did its fair share of business in coming in sixth with $1.8 million from only 295 theaters.
Marc Forster’s White Bird opened in 1,018 locations and is the latest Lionsgate release to underwhelm with a launch of $1.5 million. Lionsgate is also handling Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, which came in tenth after tumbling a steep 74 percent in its second weekend to $1.1 million for a North American total of $6.5 million.
Oct. 6, 8:15 a.m.: This story has been updated with revised estimates.
Oct. 6, 930 a.m.: This story has been updated with additional estimates.
This story was originally published on Oct. 5 at 8:20 a.m.
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