‘Joker 2’ flounders with $40 million in box office debut

Joker: Folie à Deux, the sequel to the billion-dollar comic book series, tanked at the box office even as it opened at number one with $40 million.

These inconsistent domestic ticket sales were well behind initial expectations of $50 million to $65 million — a range that has actually been adjusted in subsequent weeks since “Joker 2” hit pre-release tracking with $70 million. Its opening weekend revenue was significantly lower than its predecessor, 2019’s “Joker,” which set a record in October with $96.2 million over the same weekend half a decade ago. As for “Folie à Deux,” this was a disastrous start for Warner Bros. Given the huge success of the original and the fact that bad word of mouth would likely kill its ability to survive on the big screen. This is a problem because the R-rated sequel carries a hefty price tag of $200 million (the first film was made for $65 million). So, Folie à Deux needs to raise at least $450 million to break even, according to sources familiar with the film’s financials.

“When you greenlight a sequel, you hope it does the work the previous one did,” says analyst Jeff Bock of Expeter Relations. “That’s definitely a concern. Warners wanted the sequel and probably spent a lot of money to make it happen.

“Joker” was supposed to be a standalone film. But the R-rated tentpole went on to become one of the most profitable comic book movies of all time and earned Phoenix an Oscar, well, that’s Hollywood after all. Warner Bros. The film mitigated the risks on “Joker” by co-financing and producing the unconventional superhero film with Bron Creative and Village Roadshow, with whom the studio also had to split revenue. Warners only has one co-financier, Domain, on this.

The original “Joker” film was an unexpected success, grossing $335 million domestically and $743 million internationally, ranking as the highest R-rated film in history at the time. (“Deadpool & Wolverine” replaced that record over the summer with $1.32 billion.) However, it may become difficult for the next film to break even because critics and audiences did not like the film. It has a 33% “rotten” rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, as well as a “D” CinemaScore from moviegoers. “Folie à Deux” debuted at the Venice Film Festival, where “Joker” took home the festival’s top prize in 2019. However, critics and festival attendees were less than enthusiastic about the sequel, leading to weeks of “rave” reviews beforehand. The general audience watched the film.

Todd Phillips returns to direct Joker: Folie à Deux, starring Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, who meets fellow inmate and conspirator Harleen “Lee” Quinzel (Lady Gaga) while serving a prison sentence for murder at Arkham Ayslum. Much of the sequel plays out as a fantasy musical (the original was a dark, macabre drama inspired by Martin Scorsese films like “Taxi Driver”) and includes covers of songs like “Get Happy,” “That’s Entertainment,” and “That’s Entertainment.” “For once in my life.”

“Todd Phillips wanted to do something completely different, but superhero movie musicals were always too elusive for mainstream audiences,” Bock says.

Last weekend’s other new film, Lionsgate’s “White Bird,” earned $1.5 million from 980 theaters. White Bird is a prequel and sequel to the 2017 film Wonder, starring Jacob Tremblay. This film had a huge opening of $27 million and reached $132 million domestically and $314 worldwide by the end of its run. However, “White Bird” does not focus on Tremblay’s character Auggie in “Wonder,” but instead focuses on his middle school bully, Julian, played by Bryce Guisard. In the present day, Julian is ostracized for his treatment of Auggie, so his grandmother tries to help him turn his life around by telling him about her childhood as a young Jewish girl during the Holocaust. This is expected to be Lionsgate’s seventh straight miss, joining the disgraced company of survival thriller “Never Let Go,” slasher comedy “The Killer’s Game” and video game adaptation “Borderlands.”

The Wild Robot, a family film produced by DreamWorks Animation, took second place with $18.7 million. In two weeks of release, the film grossed $63.9 million.

Elsewhere, there are titles reserved by Warner Bros. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” Paramount’s “Transformers One,” and Universal’s “Speak No Evil” topped the box office. If Warner Bros. Disappointed with the results of “Joker 2”, she should be happy with the performance of the “Beetlejuice” sequel. The second part of the movie “poltergeist” ranked third with revenues of $10.3 million, bringing its total revenues in North America to $265.5 million. In fourth place, the animated film “Transformers” earned $5.3 million, bringing its total domestic revenues to $47.2 million, while “Speak No Evil,” a new version of a Danish-Dutch horror film, earned $2.8 million to occupy fifth place and push United States Forward. Total to $32.6 million.

It’s also worth noting that Sony’s “Saturday Night,” a look at the inaugural broadcast of “SNL” that generated buzz at the Oscars, expanded from five to more than 20 locations in its second week of release. The film earned $280,000 over the weekend ($13,333 per location average), bringing its total gross to $638,000 through Sunday. Next weekend will bring the release of “Piece By Piece,” which tells the life story of Pharrell Williams using Lego animation, as well as the wide release of “Saturday Night.”

But the big question will be how will “Joker 2” perform in its second weekend after missing the mark in its first weekend?