Joker 2 is on track to become one of the biggest box office disasters of all time and a cautionary tale for sequel-makers.
The box office numbers are coming in, and one thing is for sure – Joker: Folie à Deux is officially DOA at the box office. How does a movie go from being the most anticipated film of the year to one of the biggest box office flops ever? I guess by making it a musical and showing absolute disdain (if not loathing) for the fans that made the first one a billion-dollar box office smash (and an Oscar winner to boot).
Indeed, the battle between Terrifier 3 and Joker: Folie à Deux wasn’t even close. The $5 million budget, unrated Terrifier 3 way outpaced expectations (including our own) to make just over $18 million this weekend (according to Deadline), despite no stars or studio support. When all is said and done, studios are going to have to sit up and take notice of the fact that two of the year’s most profitable movies, Terrifier 3 and Longlegs, wound up being smash hits because they became must-see events for their respective audiences. Why is it that seemingly only horror audiences can be mobilized this way? Maybe an enterprising studio can try to apply this formula to other, somewhat dormant genres, like lower-key action and comedy. Rebel Ridge was a smash for Netflix. Maybe something similar could gain a foothold in theaters?
Joker: Folie à Deux didn’t even manage a second-place finish, with it easily beaten by the well-reviewed The Wild Robot (now getting a sequel), which made $13.45 million for a strong $83.7 million total. It will likely cross the $100 million mark by the end of next weekend. Joker slumped into third place, falling a shocking 82% in its second weekend for a $7.055 million weekend, and an abysmal total just north of $52 million. When the final numbers are in, it could theoretically be beaten by Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which made over $7 million this weekend for a $275 million total. It’s pretty interesting that Warner Bros has both the biggest hit of the fall season and the biggest flop.
The Lego-animated Pharrell doc, Piece By Piece, managed an ok fifth-place finish with $3.8 million. Transformers One continued to underperform (spectacularly) with $3.65 million for a $52 million total. In pretty sad news, Jason Reitman’s excellent Saturday Night, about the early days of SNL, totally whiffed at the box office this weekend, making a poor $3.4 million for a total of just over $4 million. It will be lucky to break $10 million domestically, although it should find an audience on VOD.
The anime My Hero Academia: You’re Next (which our own Steve Seigh reviewed here) did well enough to hit eighth place, with $3 million. A re-release of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas turned out to be an event fans were dying to see, with it grossing a solid $2.3 million, bringing its lifeline gross to $89.9 million. Finally, the controversial Donald Trump movie, The Apprentice, was bombed (badly) and came in tenth place, with only $1.58 million despite playing on over 1500 screens. Yikes.
Next weekend sees the release of Parker Finn’s Smile 2, which could give us our first $50 million plus opening since Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Do you think Art the Clown will be able to slash his way to a second-place finish next weekend? Let us know in the comments!