‘Joker 2’ Stumbles With $40 Million Box Office Debut

“Joker: Folie à Deux,” a genre-bending sequel to the billion-dollar comic book smash, hit a sour note at the box office even as it opened to No. 1 with $40 million.

Those discordant domestic ticket sales were behind initial projections of $50 million to $65 million — a range that was already revised down in the subsequent weeks since “Joker 2” landed on pre-release tracking with $70 million. Opening weekend revenues were significantly lower than its predecessor, 2019’s “Joker,” which set an October record with a stellar $96.2 million during the same weekend a half a decade ago. As for “Folie à Deux,” this start is disappointing for Warner Bros. considering the blockbuster success of the original and the reality that poor word-of-mouth will likely hurt its big-screen staying power. That’s a problem because the R-rated sequel carries a substantial $200 million price tag (the first film was produced for a trim $65 million). So, “Folie à Deux” needs to generate at least $450 million to break even, according to sources familiar with the film’s financials.

“When you greenlight a sequel, you hope it does the business that the previous one did,” says analyst Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations. “This is definitely a concern. Warners wanted the sequel and probably overspent to get it to happen.”

“Joker” was supposed to be a standalone film. But the R-rated tentpole became one of the most profitable comic book movies ever and earned Phoenix an Oscar, and, well, this is Hollywood after all. Warner Bros. mitigated risk on “Joker” by co-financing and producing the unconventional take on a superhero film with Bron Creative and Village Roadshow, with whom the studio also had to split revenues. Warners is the sole financier on the sequel.

The original “Joker” became an unexpected hit with $335 million domestically and $743 million internationally, standing as the highest-grossing R-rated movie in history at the time. (“Deadpool & Wolverine” supplanted that record over the summer with $1.32 billion). Yet it could become a challenge for the follow-up film to reach its breakeven point because critics and audiences haven’t liked the film. It received a 33% “rotten” rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, as well as a D CinemaScore from moviegoers. Muted buzz for “Folie à Deux” began at Venice Film Festival, where “Joker” took home the fest’s top prize in 2019. Yet critics and festival attendees weren’t as enthusiastic about the sequel, leading to weeks of “meh” reviews before general audiences saw the movie.

Todd Phillips returned to direct “Joker: Folie à Deux,” starring Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, who meets fellow inmate and co-conspirator, Harleen “Lee” Quinzel (Lady Gaga), while he’s serving time for murder at Arkham Ayslum. Much of the sequel plays as a fantasy musical (the original was squarely a dark, grisly drama that took inspiration from Martin Scorsese movies like “Taxi Driver”) and includes covers of songs such as “Get Happy,” “That’s Entertainment” and “For Once in My Life.”

“Todd Phillips wanted to do something completely different, but musical numbers in a superhero film was always going to be a tough sell to mainstream audiences,” says Bock.

This weekend’s other newcomer, Lionsgate’s “White Bird,” brought in $1.5 million from 980 theaters. “White Bird” is billed as a prequel and sequel to 2017’s sleeper hit “Wonder,” starring Jacob Tremblay. That film enjoyed a sizable $27 million start and powered to $132 million domestically and $314 globally by the end of its run. “White Bird,” however, doesn’t focus on Tremblay’s character Auggie from “Wonder” but instead his middle school bully Julian, who was portrayed by Bryce Gheisar. In the present day, Julian is ostracized for his treatment of Auggie, so his grandmother tries to help him turn his life around by telling him about her childhood as a young Jewish girl during the Holocaust. It’s shaping up to be the seventh consecutive misfire for Lionsgate, joining the ignominious company of survival thriller “Never Let Go,” assassin comedy “The Killer’s Game” and video game adaptation “Borderlands.”

DreamWorks Animation’s “The Wild Robot,” a well-reviewed family film, captured second place, earning $18.7 million. In two weeks of release, the film has grossed $63.9 million.

Elsewhere, holdover titles Warner Bros.’ “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” Paramount’s “Transformers One” and Universal’s “Speak No Evil” rounded out box office charts. If Warner Bros. is feeling down about those “Joker 2” results, it must be pleased with how the “Beetlejuice” follow-up has performed. The poltergeist sequel took third place with $10.3 million to lift its North American total to a sterling $265.5 million. In fourth place, the animated “Transformers” adventure earned $5.3 million to bring its domestic haul to $47.2 million, while “Speak No Evil,” a remake of a Danish-Dutch horror film, grossed $2.8 million to take fifth place and pushed its stateside total to $32.6 million.

Also of note, Sony’s “Saturday Night,” a look at the inaugural broadcast of “SNL” that has generated Oscar buzz, expanded from five to over 20 locations in its second week of release. The film earned $280,000 for the weekend ($13,333 per location average), bringing its total gross to $638,000 through Sunday. Next weekend brings the release of “Piece By Piece,” which tells the life story of Pharrell Williams using Lego animation, as well as the wide release of “Saturday Night.”

But the big question will be how does “Joker 2” fare in its second weekend after missing the mark in its first?