Joker: Folie à Deuxhas fallen significantly behind the original movie during its global opening weekend. The new release is a sequel to the original 2019 hit starring Joaquin Phoenix as the iconic DC Comics villain, reteaming the star with original director and co-writer Todd Phillips. After adding musical numbers and co-star Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn, theJoker: Folie à Deuxbudgetballooned significantly past the original movie’s reported $70 million to hit an estimated total between $190 and $200 million.
PerDeadline, as of Sunday morning,Joker: Folie à Deux’s opening weekend is projected to take in a 3-day total of $81.1 million in international markets. This is more than twice its projected domestic opening, which cratered well below expectations to a total between $39 and $40 million, andbrings its cumulative worldwide debut to $121.1 million. This is more than $100 million lower than the global debut of the original movie, which opened to a total of $235.2 million thanks to $96.2 million domestic and $139 million overseas.
What This Global Debut Means For Joker: Folie à Deux
The Movie Could Struggle To Break Even
Because of the huge price tag ofJoker: Folie à Deux, theDC Elseworlds moviehas not even made its budget back in theaters yet, something that the original movie was able to do from its domestic debut alone. However, that is not the only milestone the movie needs to hit. According toVariety, sources estimate thatthe sequel will need to earn more than $450 million just to break even, a goal that may be just within its abilities if its run continues to stay proportional with the original installment.
It will likely not be a word-of-mouth success…
However, it is also possible thatthe movie could suffer a severe drop in its second weekend. It will likely not be a word-of-mouth success, asJoker: Folie à Deuxreviewshave been overwhelmingly negative, earning it a dismal 33% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences have responded even worse, giving it a 31% score at the time of writing. Users have given it middling to low scores across various other platforms as well, including Letterboxd (2.5 out of 5), IMDb (5.3 out of 10), Metacritic (4.3 out of 10), andScreen Rant’s own user review platform (4.2 out of 10).
Our Take On The Joker: Folie à Deux Global Debut
The Movie May Have Been Sunk By Its World Premiere
Ultimately, it seems like the poor debut ofJoker: Folie à Deuxcomes down to multiple factors. One that is cited in quite a few reviews is the musical element, which many have found jarring in a direct sequel to a non-musical movie. The movie’s big swings aside, it seems thatit may not have been a benefit to have its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival a full month before its wide release, even though this strategy worked in 2019, as it seems to have allowed ample time for the early negative reviews to reach potential viewers.
Joker: Folie a Deux
Cast
Joker: Folie à Deux is the sequel to Todd Phillips' critically acclaimed comic book thriller Joker. Reprising his Academy Award-winning performance as the failed comedian Arthur Fleck, Joaquin Phoenix revisits the iconic DC character alongside Lady Gaga, who makes her debut as Joker’s lover Harley Quinn in this standalone continuity of the DC Universe.
