As I write this article, it is the third week of the worldwide release of Joker: Folie à Deux (2024), which is performing quite badly at the box office. The movie opened with $38 million in the domestic box office, which was at least $20-30 million less than expected. The second weekend was more brutal, earning only $7 million from over 4,000 theaters, leading to a historic 81% box office drop. At that point, it doesn’t take a genius to understand that Folie à Deux is not going to make anywhere near the “Even Breaking Point” (which would be $450 million).
We all know that the first movie, Joker (2019), was a blockbuster with over $1B collection. Now, why exactly is a sequel to a one-billion grossing film doing so badly at the box office? Why is Joker: Folie à Deux going to be a box office bomb? I have a few ideas why.
We, the fans who loved Joker (2019), didn’t really want a sequel, did we? Along with excellent writing and outstanding lead performance, one of the key components of the film was the ambiguity of reality and fantasy. Joker (2019) had an excellent open ending where we didn’t know if that was real or just Arthur’s imagination. Did he really kill Murray Franklin on live TV and those bullies in the subway, or was it just some of his fantasy all along?
Now, the thing about open-ended movies like this is, the audience would want to know but doesn’t really need to know what exactly happened. That would ruin the fun of it. So, a sequel explaining the ending of the previous film is not something the audience wanted.
Also, Joker (2019) was a one-off, standalone movie that completed the character arc of the protagonist. The transformation of Arthur Fleck into the Joker felt just right by the end of that film, and it couldn’t get any better than that.
So, when you try to squeeze more out of a perfectly ended film that doesn’t need any further exploration, you get what you f***ing deserve—a box office bomb.
Musical Format
Director Todd Phillips made a big swing by making Folie à Deux a musical, starring Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn. And the fans weren’t really happy with that decision at all. The hatred was all over the internet since the announcement was made, which is nothing new. We’ve always witnessed massive backlash literally every time a director tries to cast someone for a famous role (the example goes for literally every Batman, Superman, Joker cast out there). So, in that case, casting anyone else except Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn would piss some off. It’s up to the director to prove them wrong.
Well, Todd Phillips failed to do that, big time. His Joker: Folie à Deux turned out to be the exact thing that the skeptics said in the first place.
Now, with the announcement of the musical, the film had already lost a portion of its potential audience because musicals are not everyone’s thing. Also, with all due respect to Todd Phillips, his attempt at the musical was a big failure. Yeah, it was visually stunning with all its extraordinary cinematography and everything. But those musical numbers don’t really contribute much to the story of the film. To be more specific, if you cut all the numbers out, it wouldn’t affect much of the storyline. Rather, the pacing of the film was interrupted almost every time there was a song. And that sure had a negative impact on the box office collection of the movie.
Failure to Get New Audiences
The primary reason behind Lady Gaga being cast as Harley Quinn was for the musical numbers. Along with that, another reason was to gain new audiences through her, as she has a huge fan base. But that didn’t work much for them. Gaga’s fans hated the film in general for not utilizing her properly. I personally believed that she had more to offer.
Making it a musical was also another strategy to attract new audiences, which also backfired because Folie à Deux wasn’t much of a good musical film. The visual inspiration from Chicago (2002) was pretty visible, but it wasn’t anywhere near that standard. Rather, it lost its potential audiences through the process.
Folie à Deux also disgusted hardcore DC fans for not having much connection with the comics (more about that coming later). Moreover, Todd Phillips did literally everything possible to lose the audience for the film. At this point, I don’t really know for whom he made Joker: Folie à Deux.
Weak Writing and Character Development
Like all other box-office bombs, Joker: Folie à Deux is a terrible movie with its bad writing. I don’t need to be Quentin Tarantino to judge how weak the story is compared to the first movie. The primary objective of a sequel should be exploring more depth of characters and bringing fresh conflicts. Well, Folie à Deux doesn’t do any of that. In the movie, we don’t get to see any of Arthur’s side that we haven’t seen before. Also, there’s no new conflict element since the entire film is basically all about the trial for the murders Arthur committed in Joker (2019).
The most disappointing part is its character development. As I just said, there wasn’t anything new about Arthur’s character. It lacks any meaningful arc, remaining the same from start to finish. And the same goes for Harley Quinn (played by Lady Gaga). Throughout the whole movie, I didn’t find any utility in her character other than the musical numbers. That’s what I call a waste of talent.
Poor Comic Adaptation
As a comic book movie, Joker: Folie à Deux didn’t have the minimum required comic book elements in it. You can call that “creative choice of the director” all you want. But when the film gets a ‘D’ CinemaScore and becomes the lowest rated comic book movie ever, I don’t see any way to defend Todd Phillips (who is one of my favorite filmmakers) on that.
As I understand it, Joker: Folie à Deux took just the names of the characters and places (Gotham and Arkham Asylum) from the DC comics—nothing else. And Todd Phillips has always been open about this. Not to mention, the film is about Batman’s arch-nemesis, the Joker, without any Batman in it. At the end of Folie à Deux, you’ll realize the protagonist isn’t even the real Joker. I mean, who’s the real clown here, Arthur Fleck or me? If the targeted audiences weren’t mainly DC fans, then this attempt at screwing the whole comic thing would be forgivable. But unfortunately, it is, and the film has to carry the burden of hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.
Negative Reception
Ever since Joker: Folie à Deux premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival (September 4, 2024), it has received mixed reactions from critics. So, the initial buzz kind of subsided, suggesting that the film isn’t as good as the previous one. After the global release on October 4, 2024, the entire internet started bashing the film with tons of negative ratings and reviews. Within the first weekend, Joker: Folie à Deux received a 5.3/10 IMDb rating, a 32% Rotten Tomatoes score, and a ‘D’ CinemaScore. And that was the last nail in the coffin, convincing audiences that Folie à Deux is not a movie worth the money and time, leading to a box office disaster.
To summarize the whole thing, Joker: Folie à Deux flopped at the box office due to the poor reception of its musical format, unnecessary sequel status, underdeveloped characters, and weak writing. It alienated both core fans and new audiences while also receiving low ratings and negative reviews, sealing its fate as a box office failure.
