Why Did ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Flop?

Joker: Folie à Deux is a bomb. And in the words of Batman, some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb.

Right now, Warner Bros. might be wishing it could. Folie à Deux grossed less than half of the original Joker in its opening weekend in theaters; an estimated $40 million compared to the $96.2 million opening for Todd Phillips’ 2019 film. That’s below estimates from even a few days ago, when it was predicted the movie would make $50 or $60 million in its opening weekend. (A few weeks ago, that number was as high as $70 million according to some experts.) At the same time, the film received a lowly “D” score from paying customers who did fork over their hard-earned dough to see the movie.

This is not the outcome anyone would have predicted. (Certainly Warner Bros. didn’t; they reportedly spent some $200 million on Joker: Folie à Deux.) When the movie was first announced it was greeted with a lot of excitement; Phillips, who turned the first Joker into the biggest R-rated film ever at that time, would re-team with Joaquin Phoenix, who won an Oscar for playing the title character — and they would be joined by Lady Gaga, playing a new version of fan favorite character Harley Quinn. On paper, that was a can’t-miss team.

But then they missed — big time. So what went wrong? Here’s a few of the key reasons Joker: Folie à Deux turned into such a misfire (a deux).

Why Did ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Flop So Badly?

Joker grossed $1 billion and became a massive smash. The sequel, from many of the same creators, is looking like one of the costliest sequels ever. So what went wrong?