Critics don't like it, and audiences seem to like it even less after two weeks in theaters. The way things are going, Joker: Folie à Deux is on track "to be one of the year's biggest catastrophes" in Hollywood, reports Variety. The story focuses on the numbers, and they are bleak for Warner Bros. When all is said and done, the movie is expected to lose up to $200 million of its backers' money, according to the outlet's sources. Considering the film is a sequel to the 2019 Joker that pulled in more than $1 billion worldwide as a smash hit, the reversal is a jolt.
"You remember that famous scene in The Dark Knight where the Joker (played by Heath Ledger) sets stacks and stacks of money on fire?" asks Mary Kate Carr at the AV Club. Well, this "defiantly unenjoyable" movie is doing it in real life, Carr adds. One big reason is that the studio shelled out $20 million upfront to director Todd Phillips and to returning lead Joaquin Phoenix, plus another $12 million to Lady Gaga. Another seems to be that Phillips' decision to make the sequel a musical has flopped in a big way.
It's a "really bad musical," legendary screenwriter Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver) said after going to see it, per Deadline. "I saw about 10 or 15 minutes of it. I left, bought something, came back, saw another 10 minutes. That was enough." The criticism is particularly cutting because the acclaimed 2019 film drew inspiration from his Taxi Driver. The new sequel (also referred to as Joker 2) saw the worst second-week decline for any comic-book movie, notes the AV Club. It has currently grossed about $51.5 million domestically and $165 million globally, and those numbers aren't expected to rise much given how much audiences rejected it in week two. (More movies stories.)
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