JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX Box Office Also Falls Short Overseas; Will Likely End Global Run With 75% Less Than JOKER

JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX Box Office Also Falls Short Overseas; Will Likely End Global Run With 75% Less Than JOKER

No one at Warner Bros. Discovery will be putting on a happy face today because after a disastrous launch for Joker: Folie à Deux in U.S. theaters, the sequel also ended up underperforming overseas...

By JoshWilding - Oct 08, 2024 05:10 AM EST
Filed Under: Joker
Source: Variety

Yesterday, we learned that Joker: Folie à Deux earned only $37.8 million at the North American box office during its opening weekend. We originally expected a $70 million debut, though the number continuously dropped before landing around the $50 million - $55 million mark. 

As the weekend drew closer, though, $40 million started looking like the best possible outcome for the Joker sequel. However, it wasn't just domestically that the divisive movie underperformed. 

Variety reveals that it fell short overseas with a $77 million start. That's a noteworthy drop from Warner Bros. Discovery's $81.1 million projections on Sunday and another indication that moviegoers wholly rejected Joker: Folie à Deux whether they'd seen it or not.

Now, its revised worldwide total is $114.8 million. 

This is an unmitigated disaster; in 2019, Joker opened with $96.2 million in the U.S. alone and eventually grossed over $1 billion worldwide. Analysts currently believe the best this follow-up will manage is $275 million when all is said and done.

"I think the musical element was the wrong direction," Jeff Bock, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations, tells the trade. "If you look at what made 'Joker' a hit, it was going to darker places. Todd Phillips wanted to do something completely different. But if you aren’t giving audiences what they want, I’m not sure who you’re serving."

With a $200 million budget before marketing, Joker: Folie à Deux will lose a lot of money for the studio and raise a lot of big questions about the DC brand's true value. The pressure is on Superman to deliver next summer, that's for sure.

In our review of the movie, we concluded by saying, "Lady Gaga shines and Joaquin Phoenix brings more of the same to Joker: Folie à Deux, a wholly unnecessary sequel with no new ideas and nothing to say. It doesn’t work as a movie or a musical. What a waste of $200 million."

Joker: Folie À Deux finds Arthur Fleck institutionalized at Arkham awaiting trial for his crimes as Joker. While struggling with his dual identity, Arthur not only stumbles upon true love, but also finds the music that's always been inside him.

The sequel stars Joaquin Phoenix once again in his Oscar-winning dual role as Arthur Fleck/Joker, opposite Oscar-winner Lady Gaga (A Star Is Born). The movie also features Oscar nominees Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees of Inisherin) and Catherine Keener (Get Out), alongside Zazie Beetz, reprising her role from Joker.

Joker: Folie À Deux is now playing in theaters. 

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Conquistador
Conquistador - 10/8/2024, 5:16 AM
Come on out @TCronson! I just want to see you say "i was wrong" :)
TCronson
TCronson - 10/9/2024, 2:45 PM
@Conquistador - I was wrong. It was the most shocking flop in a long time, no way to spin it. What avatar do you want? Deal is a deal.
Conquistador
Conquistador - 10/9/2024, 3:17 PM
@TCronson - You're a gentleman. We can leave it at that. I was also wrong, I don't see it making 500million.

I was right about Dune 2 being more successful though. 🤣.

Will give you credit though, you manned up unlike most of these other trolls.
TCronson
TCronson - 10/9/2024, 6:07 PM
@Conquistador - thanks, I would've replied earlier, but I was pretty busy this week.
TheJok3r
TheJok3r - 10/8/2024, 5:20 AM
The clown at the top will consider this a major win because the "wrong" fans didn't show up to support it.
DrReedRichards
DrReedRichards - 10/8/2024, 6:30 AM
@TheJok3r -

The reason this is any kind of "win" is because it made those most vocally in favour of the first one's protagonist take a good look at themselves and realize that they were rooting for a jackass...

...politically contemporary as that may be.
mountainman
mountainman - 10/8/2024, 7:50 AM
@DrReedRichards - LOL if you think at all this is anybody’s takeaway. Hollywood trying to lecture or moralize to normal people only serves to make Hollywood less liked and their projects to fail. A vast majority of people couldn’t care less what these privileged millionaires think about anything.

DrReedRichards
DrReedRichards - 10/8/2024, 8:07 AM
@mountainman -

"Hollywood trying to lecture or moralize to normal people only serves to make Hollywood less liked and their projects to fail."

That is precisely my point. Call it Hollywood because of Warner, call it indie because of Philips acting rogue, call it whatever you will, the point still is that this script serves as a blatant "f#ck you" to those who praise the first film's Arthur as some sort of rebel icon, and the reactions online, both here and other site, very much prove that those the movie intended to insult very much do care; as they should.
SATW42
SATW42 - 10/8/2024, 8:49 AM
@mountainman - I'd argue that anyone that thinks Arthur Fleck was a hero is not normal.
SATW42
SATW42 - 10/8/2024, 8:51 AM
@mountainman - or at the very least, those people should think about why a guy who kills a man because he made fun of his standup act is somehow someone to look up to
mountainman
mountainman - 10/8/2024, 9:19 AM
@DrReedRichards - Oh I’m not disputing what the intention was. It’s obvious that there was a disdain for some of the people who liked the first movie for “the wrong” reasons.

A filmmaker or studio can do whatever they want. It’s their product to produce. But it just seems silly for any business to make products to spite their customers. It’s happened a lot in Hollywood in recent years. I believe it’s their right to do so, but I find them to be unintelligent spiteful people for doing so.
DrReedRichards
DrReedRichards - 10/8/2024, 9:24 AM
@mountainman -

Like I said in another article a couple of days ago, it was pretty self-destructive of him to do so. I mean, I get it, and as someone who admitedly can't stand the pretentiousness of said target audience I even applaud it, but from a market/profit point of view it was pretty stupid.

Respectable as a creator, because you can tell it was his own desire and not the studio's mandate to present this message to the audiences, but still stupid as a professional.
mountainman
mountainman - 10/8/2024, 9:27 AM
@SATW42 - Im not making that argument. I don’t think he is a hero. In fact, I’ve only seen the movie once, found it to be good and not great, and have really found most all discourse around both of these movies to be incredibly hyperbolic.

There probably could have been other ways to make Joker not idolized without producing what this movie seems to be.

Like if he were a more outright villainous Joker (like what most fans probably wanted), and we got to see the negative results of the chaos he sows. The traditional way we would punish the bad guy is for the hero to come in at the end, stop their plan, and defeat them. Even other movies where the bad guy is the main character, they almost always lose to the good guys in the end. Scarface got his come uppance. Walter White got his. So many times have we followed the main character, who is a bad person, who gets the punishment they deserve, and yet it isn’t rejected by audiences. So the problem isn’t that they wanted to portray him in a more negative light so more people saw him as bad and deserving of punishment, it seems much more like a writing issue.

But either way, the audience has spoken, and they are the most important constituents for a movie. If they don’t like it then it is a failure. So here we are.
mountainman
mountainman - 10/8/2024, 9:32 AM
@DrReedRichards - I certainly appreciate risk taking in Hollywood, I just am not a huge fan of the obvious disdain that a lot of them have for their customer base.

I don’t even have to agree with the person (and I don’t agree with the people who were obsessed with the first one and saw Arthur as a hero) to recognize that I’ll always be on the side of the common people vs a millionaire Hollywood celebrity.

I defend him in making whatever type of art he wants to. I’ll just never understand any business that can’t adhere to the most basic principle of producing products that customers want to consume and not getting mad at them when they reject what you have made.
SATW42
SATW42 - 10/8/2024, 10:06 AM
@mountainman - In fairness, I haven't seen Phillips get mad that it's being rejected. I also haven't seen him say anything at all, so maybe that's to come. and all we've heard from gaga is she's surpised, and that was from reps not from her.
harryba11zack
harryba11zack - 10/8/2024, 5:25 AM
Or perhaps he's wondering why someone would bum a man, before throwing him out of a plane?
User Comment Image
NickScryer
NickScryer - 10/8/2024, 5:46 AM
Josh is steadily building his collection for upcoming lonely, autumn evenings.
LSHF
LSHF - 10/8/2024, 5:51 AM
"...But if you aren’t giving audiences what they want, I’m not sure who you’re serving."

The director.

This is really a bad period of time (theater going-wise) to be taking such monumentally financial risks with other people's money
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 10/8/2024, 5:58 AM
@LSHF - musicals are such a niche genre that it was a bad idea to give them so much money to make it from the start

I can see it being higher then something like La La Land which was made on a 30 million budget due to the period 80’s setting to an extent but still nowhere near 200 million (most of which went to the leads & Phillips who should have reduced their asking rate for this anyway given the type of film it is).
LSHF
LSHF - 10/8/2024, 6:23 AM
@TheVisionary25 - I agree 100%.

As you know, many directors/studios have made such arrangements as the example you gave.

It will be interesting to see what type of financial risks Warner/DC takes in the future.
SuperiorHeckler
SuperiorHeckler - 10/8/2024, 6:02 AM
Meanwhile; Todd Phillips, Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga continue to laugh all the way to the bank. 🫤
MisterBones
MisterBones - 10/8/2024, 6:02 AM
You get what you deserve
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 10/8/2024, 6:18 AM
God , I’m so tired of people talking about giving the audience what they want…

Half or most of the time they can’t even agree with each other so if you try to listen to them and make something according to that then it’ll never be done.

As I have said , it’s always best for creatives to tell the story that engages them in a manner that appeals to them the most and then hope others connect with it aswell (big or small).

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:fywkyppwdx3ewh7vcla6qcmd/bafkreiakuqxglxqwewioick6kkt42oypubopm3u7k7rs6cqrrl4xmb24a4@jpeg

It’s unfortunate that the film has generally been negatively received and not done well but sometimes that just happens , it doesn’t mean you start bowing down to audiences who have their own disparate tastes & sensibilities.
LSHF
LSHF - 10/8/2024, 6:30 AM
@TheVisionary25 - On a mostly related topic, one internet film reviewer stated pretty much what we've already read PLUS that he felt the film would get more appreciation down the road as people get past not getting what they wanted to appreciating what they got in terms of what the director was striving for.

It somewhat reminds me of Glass and how it steered away from what fans wanted to tell what the director thought was a more compelling story.
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 10/8/2024, 6:45 AM
@LSHF - god , we really need an edit button on this site…

That link is really bothering my OCD lol.

I do agree with you that it may happen since it’s happened with other films aswell
LSHF
LSHF - 10/8/2024, 6:50 AM
@TheVisionary25 - I miss the edit button.
Reeds2Much
Reeds2Much - 10/8/2024, 7:24 AM
@TheVisionary25 - God , I’m so tired of people talking about giving the audience what they want…

"There are only two tragedies in life: One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it."

t. Oscar Wilde
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 10/8/2024, 7:56 AM
@Reeds2Much - well said by him

Satisfaction is hard to come by for many.
JustAWaffle
JustAWaffle - 10/8/2024, 6:23 AM
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AllsGood
AllsGood - 10/8/2024, 8:00 AM
No one at Warner Bros. Discovery will be putting on a happy face today because after a disastrous launch for Joker: Folie à Deux in U.S. theaters, the sequel also ended up underperforming overseas...

Meanwhile Terrifier 3 has gone up from 88% to a MIND BLOWING 92% at Rotten Tomatoes. Opening Night 8:00 P.M.

An impressively gory slasher movie with fantastic effects, strong characters, and of course a new genre icon in Art the Clown.

An impressively gory slasher movie with fantastic effects, strong characters, and of course a new genre icon in Art the Clown.

User Comment Image

Terrifier 3 Audience Reactions

dragon316
dragon316 - 10/8/2024, 8:18 AM
Not joker fan I never wanted see first one in theater I did I like first one this one doesn’t need sequel uncalled for make another trailer didn’t make me want go out see it allready saw one boring disappointing movie transformers one not going with another
Forthas
Forthas - 10/8/2024, 8:47 AM
It has been eleven years since Man of Steel debuted and Warner Brothers was at the height of their game. All they had to do was to pair The Dark Knight Trilogy and Man of Steel, follow the blueprint for those films and they would be on top of the world right now. But this studio decided to put their faith in oddball directors who don't care about fans or the source materials. Between Zack Snyder and his nihilistic world view, to Todd Phillips who all of a sudden thinks CBM's should be musicals to now James Gunn who wants to be the king of comedy, it is apparent to me that this studio has caused its own demise by letting directors run wild and ignoring its fan base
SATW42
SATW42 - 10/8/2024, 8:54 AM
Everyone thought Folie a Deux meant Joker and Harley. In the end it was Joker and anyone who thought Arthur was anything other than a pathetic sap who became a killer.
Nomis929
Nomis929 - 10/8/2024, 10:13 AM
Ouch! That's gonna leave a mark!

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