The weekend numbers are in and Joker: Folie à Deux tanked at the box office.
With big names like Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix, you’d expect some movie magic, right? Originally, the film was projected to make $70 million in its opening weekend, but due to poor reviews from both critics and audience members, it only made $40 million at the domestic box office.
Critics are not holding back—this film has received a dire “D” grade on CinemaScore, marking it as the lowest-rated comic book movie ever. As of this writing, it has a 33% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Why is this sequel struggling? Perhaps the unique combination of a love story and musical elements just didn’t resonate with audiences looking for a dark and gritty experience, such as the first Joker film.
Up until this year’s Deadpool & Wolverine movie, 2019’s Joker was the highest-grossing R-rated film making $1.078 billion globally. A far cry from the $81.1 million Joker 2 made overseas this weekend (source: The Hollywood Reporter).
With a mammoth budget of $200 million, you’d think they’d nail the script. Maybe they should’ve consulted a different “jester” to sprinkle some extra magic on this flick!
