This is no joke.
Todd Phillips‘ sequel Joker: Folie à Deux has made history by becoming the the first Hollywood comic book movie to earn a D CinemaScore from audiences. Exit polls are equally as grim as audiences express their unhappiness with the sequel.
That unhappiness is translating into a troubled opening at the box office, where the Warner Bros. movie is coming in well behind expectations. The divisive sequel earned a soft $20 million on Friday, including $7 million in previews, for a projected launch south of $50 million. Rival studios show the Joaquin Phoenix–Lady Gaga film opening anywhere from $42 million to $47 million (one studio even thinks $40 million or less).
Heading into the weekend, Joker 2 was expected to do $50 million to $60 million. That was down from the $70 million expected three weeks ago when the pic first came on tracking.
In 2019, Joker debuted to a dreamy $96.2 million on its way to a record-shattering worldwide total of $1 billion.
Phillips’ polarizing, R-rated sequel — which made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival to mixed reviews — is a genre-busting, music-infused film that strays outside the comfort zone of the typical fanboy-fueled comic book pic. More worrisome than Thursday’s night gross is terrible exit scores on PostTrak, with audiences giving it a half-star out of five, similar to the Thursday night score for Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, which bombed in spectacular fashion last weekend with $4 million after earning a D+ CinemaScore. (Joker‘s PostTrak could ultimately change as the weekend goes on.)
Even superhero movies that don’t work at the box office usually earn decent CinemaScores. Marvel Studios’ The Marvels, which opened to a dismal $46.2 million last year, earned a B. Ditto for fellow Warners’ film The Flash, which opened to a problematic $55 million domestically.
Fanboy sites were quick to point out the historic meaning of D grade for Joker: Folie à Deux late Friday night. And the first Joker didn’t even earn an A, but a B+.
While 2019’s Joker earned comparisons to the earlier works of Martin Scorsese, the sequel is a far slower journey that focuses on the interior lives of its two leads. Critics have praised the movie’s overall beauty, its performances and its crafts but dinged it for its narrative. “For a movie running two-and-a-quarter hours, Folie à Deux feels narratively a little thin and at times dull,” wrote The Hollywood Reporter‘s chief film critic David Rooney out of Venice.
Regardless of its box office performance, the movie still hopes to be a major player in the Oscars race, particularly for its performances.
Overseas, Joker 2 opens everywhere this weekend, save for Japan and China, where it launches in the coming weeks. Warners is hoping for a foreign debut of $80 million to $85 million.
Joker: Folie à Deux reunites Phillips with Phoenix, who returns in the titular role after winning the Oscar for best actor for his portrayal of Arthur Fleck/Joker. Neither Phillips nor Phoenix was sure about making a sequel and, for a time, contemplated putting on a Broadway show instead, before ultimately committing to the movie.
The first Joker cost just $55 million to produce before marketing. After its success, Phillips’ was given a net production budget of $190 million to $200 million for the second installment. Part of that went to bringing aboard Gaga in a role inspired by the comic book character Harley Quinn (the filmmakers are hoping she will lure in female moviegoers).
Much of the film consists of fantasy musical numbers starring the couple, who meet while Arthur is in Arkham Asylum, awaiting trial for his crimes from the first movie. However, neither Warners nor Phillips is comfortable calling it a straight-up musical, given that only two of the characters sing, versus a traditional musical, which usually has scores of people participating in the numbers.
The studio’s marketing materials have steered clear of highlighting the film’s numerous musical sequences, just as they did when selling Wonka, an official musical. Warners isn’t alone; Paramount also didn’t market Mean Girls as a musical.
Phillips is well aware that the sequel is unorthodox, as it doesn’t fully follow through on the ending of Joker, which sees Arthur embrace his alter ego. At the Los Angeles premiere Monday, Phillips thanked the studio “for taking such a bold swing,” adding, “It is not necessarily the sequel you might expect.”
Numbers will be updated Sunday morning.