“Joker: Folie à Deux” is the No. 1 film on the box office, but it surely may not have a blissful ending.
In a turn of events that only Arthur Fleck would find funny, the sequel to Todd Phillips' 2019 origin story concerning the Batman villain opened in theaters nationwide this weekend and brought in a muted $40 million, lower than half of its predecessor, in keeping with studio estimates Sunday. The collapse was quick and lots of within the industry are wondering: How did it occur? the highly anticipated sequel to an Oscar-winning, billion-dollar film make a mistake with the identical creative team?
Just three weeks ago, tracking services had announced a $70 million debut for the film, which might still have been well below Joker's record-breaking $96.2 million opening in October 2019. Reviews were mixed Venice Film FestivalWhere It premiered just like the first film in competition and even received a 12-minute standing ovation.
But the glory of the homecoming was short-lived, and the delicate foundation would collapse in the approaching weeks, as its Rotten Tomatoes rating dropped from 63% in Venice to 33% in its first weekend in theaters. Perhaps much more surprising were the audience reviews: ticket buyers surveyed on opening night gave the film a fatal box office rating of “D.” PostTrak's exit polls were no higher. It received a paltry half star out of a possible five.
“This is a one-two punch that will be very difficult to recover from,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “The biggest problem of all is the reported budget. A $40 or $50 million opening for a cheaper film would be a solid debut.”
Joker: Folie à Deux cost not less than twice as much to supply as the primary film, although reported figures vary as to the precise production costs. Phillips told Variety that it was lower than the reported $200 million; Others put it at $190 million. Warner Bros. released the film in 4,102 locations in North America. About 12.5% of the domestic total got here from 415 IMAX screens.
Internationally, the corporate grossed $81.1 million from 25,788 screens, bringing its estimated worldwide total to $121.1 million. “Joker 2” can even be released in Japan and China in the subsequent two weeks.
Second place went to Universal and DreamWorks Animations“The Wild Robot” That brought a second weekend gain of $18.7 million, bringing the domestic total to just about $64 million. It generated over $100 million worldwide. Warner Bros.' “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” took third place in its fifth weekend, Paramount's “Transformers One” got here in fourth and Universal and Blumhouse's “Speak No Evil” rounded out the highest five.
The other big release of the weekend, Lionsgate's “White Bird” Floped with just $1.5 million from just over 1,000 locations, despite an A+ CinemaScore.
All in all, the weekend is on par with last 12 months, however the opening of “Joker” is an unwelcome turn for theater owners hoping to scale back the box office deficit.
Phillips and lead actor Joaquin Phoenix said they desired to do something as “bold” as the primary film. The The sequel added Lady Gagaas a Joker superfan, and delved deeper into the mind of Arthur Fleck, who’s imprisoned in Arkham awaiting trial for the murders he committed in the primary film. It can also be a musical with elaborate songs and dance routines based on old standards. Gaga even released an accompanying album Called “Harlequin,” next to the film.
In his Review for The Associated PressJake Coyle wrote: “Phillips has followed up his very anti-heroic version of the Joker with a very anti-heroic sequel. It combines prison drama, courtroom thriller and musical and yet proves to be remarkably sluggish considering how explosive the original was.”
The sequel has already been the topic of various think pieces, with some suggesting that the sequel intentionally alienated fans of the primary film. In cruder terms it is usually called the “middle finger”. But fans often ignore critics' advice, especially on the subject of opening their wallets to see revered comic book characters on the massive screen.
“They’re going for the fences,” Dergarabedian said. “But aside from a few outliers, audiences in 2024 seem to want to know what they're getting when they go to the theater. They want the tried and tested, the familiar.”
There are also some high-profile defenders: Francis Ford Coppola, who got his own last week D+ CinemaScore for his expensive, ambitious and controversial film “Megalopolis” entered the Joker chat with an Instagram post.
“@ToddPhillips films continue to surprise me and I enjoy them very much,” Coppola wrote. “Since the wonderful 'The Hangover,' he's at all times been one step ahead of the audience and never does what they expect.”
“Megalopolis,” meanwhile, fell 74% in its second weekend with just over $1 million, reaching a total of just under $6.5 million on a budget of $120 million.
Deadline editor Anthony D'Alessandro believes the problem started with the idea of making the Joker sequel into a musical. “No fan of the original film wanted to see a musical sequel,” he wrote Saturday.
The The first film was also controversial and the subject of much debate, then about whether it might send the wrong message to the wrong kind of person. And yet people still flocked to see what the fuss was about. “Joker” received 11 Oscar nominations, including best picture and best director, as well as three wins. It also grossed over $1 billion and was the highest-grossing R-rated film of all time until Marvel's “Deadpool & Wolverine” took the crown this summer.
1. “Joker: Folie à Deux,” $40 million.
2. “The Wild Robot,” $18.7 million.
3. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” $10.3 million.
4. “Transformers One,” $5.4 million.
5. “Speak No Evil,” $2.8 million.
6. “Sam and Colby: The Legends of Paranormal,” $1.8 million.
7. “White Bird,” $1.5 million.
8. “Deadpool & Wolverine,” $1.5 million.
9. “The Substance,” $1.3 million.
10. “Megalopolis,” $1.1 million.
Originally published:
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