The original Joker, released in 2019, was one of the biggest surprise hits in comic book movie history; a bizarre, darkly dramatic, totally-not-canon spinoff that somehow made over a billion dollars worldwide. Now it seems that the franchise is just destined for surprises, as its highly anticipated sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux, has opened to terrible reviews and an even worse weekend at the box office.
The new film, which brings Joaquin Phoenix back as Arthur Fleck and adds Lady Gaga to the cast as Harley Quinn, opened to just $40 million in the United States over the weekend and only barely scraped by $100 million globally so far. By comparison, the original movie pulled in nearly $100 million domestically in its first few days, while its international weekend capped at an astounding $247 million.
This is a staggering drop between an original and a sequel with few comparisons in the comic book movie canon. But it’s also not that surprising when you look at how the film has been received more broadly. While the first movie had a somewhat mixed reception critically, it generally trended toward positive, with a 68% critical aggregate on Rotten Tomatoes and an impressive 89% fan score. Meanwhile the second more has been excoriated on all sides, with a 33% from critics and a 31% from audiences, giving it the extremely rare dishonor of complete alignment between critics and fans. Perhaps even more explanatory of the movie’s awful box office performance is the fact that it earn a “D” Cinema Score over the weekend — which polls viewers after they leave screenings in certain theaters —the lowest by any comic book movie ever.
The good news, if you can call it that, is that Joker’s universe was already at a definitive end in the conclusion of Joker: Folie à Deux. According to director Todd Phillips, this movie was his last foray into the DC Universe, and there won’t be any more movies in the series. Of course, this seems right in line with Warner Bros. plans as well, considering James Gunn’s take on the DC cinematic universe is set to begin next year with his new Superman movie.
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