Joker: Folie À Deux has a rough opening weekend as the movie only pulled in $40 million at the box office. That’s not good for a film that had a $200 million budget. At the same time, the film’s Rotten Tomatoes score has plummeted with not only critics but audiences as well.
When the film first premiered at the Venice Film Festival last month, there were plenty of rave reviews following its reported 11-minute standing ovation.
Joker: Folie À Deux has declined dramatically as more verdicts have been counted, and it currently sits at 39% review with a 37% Audience Score. For context, Joker has a 68% score from critics and 89% from moviegoers.
On top of that, the film received a terrible D CinemaScore, which is the worst rating for a comic book movie in CinemaScore history. It places below Morbius (C+), Batman and Robin (C+), and 2015’s Fantastic Four (C-). Even Madame Web got a C+.
Warner Bros. had a lot of faith in this movie after the first one made over a billion dollars at the box office, but if there were any smart executives there, they should’ve seen the writing on the wall that lightning wasn’t going to strike twice.
I’m surprised that they even moved forward with the sequel after director Todd Phillips made his pitch for the movie. A Joker musical just wasn’t going to work for people.
Phillips recently talked about the film, distancing it from DC Studios, saying: “With all due respect to [DC Studios], this is kind of a Warner Bros. movie. That’s them also wanting it to be like, ‘Okay, Todd did his thing, let Todd continue to do his thing.'”
His thing didn’t quite work out the second time around. But, this certainly did something different and unique. They thought outside of the box on this one. It just didn’t work.
In the film, Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is 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.
Arthur forms a strong relationship with Quinn (Lady Gaga) and together they embark on a journey filled with violence and music, because this movie is a musical.
The movie was directed by Todd Phillips and it also stars Catherine Keener, Jacob Lofland, and Brendan Gleeson who will be playing undisclosed characters.
