Last weekend, Joker: Folie à Deux arrived in theaters with poor reviews, negative fan reactions, and a much lower opening box office weekend than the first Joker movie. And now the $200 million sequel has dropped about 80 percent in its second weekend while Terrifier 3, an indie horror flick, became the biggest movie in the U.S.
2019’s Joker, directed by Todd Phillips, became one of the most successful movies ever made, grossing over $1 billion at the box office, and was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, with Joker star Joaquin Phoenix winning Best Actor. The recently released musical-courtroom drama sequel isn’t doing nearly as well. Critics called it boring and messy and fans were upset about the movie’s ending and how little it used Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn. And all of that has seemingly led to a lot of people not showing up for Joker 2 as WB prepares to release it on digital and streaming soon.
As reported by Deadline, Joker 2 brought in just $7 million domestically during its second week in theaters. That’s an 81 percent drop from its opening weekend total of $37.6 million, one of the biggest second-week drops in history. For comparison, Joker in 2019 opened with over $95 million and made about $55 million in its second weekend. That’s a drop of just 41 percent.
That 81 percent drop in the second week led to Joker 2 landing in fourth at the box office, well behind Terrifier 3‘s $18 million opener. The horror sequel starring Art The Clown beat expectations and toppled DC’s famous clown, and did so on a much smaller budget. Joker 2 cost $200 million to make, not counting marketing, and will likely end up losing WB between $150 to $200 million. Meanwhile, Terrifier 3 cost just $2 million to produce and is likely already quite profitable.
Joker 2‘s big drop and bad reviews have seemingly already led to WB giving up on the pricey sequel miraculously turning things around at the box office. Joker: Folie à Deux is now set to arrive on digital stores and streaming platforms on October 29. A similar thing happened to the Borderlands movie, another big box office flop earlier this year.
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