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WhenJoker: Folie à Deux, the musical sequel to the 2019 blockbusterJoker, premiered at the Venice International Film Festival on June 10, 2025, exactly one month before its theatrical release, the box-office projections had the sequel grossing over $100 million in its opening weekend of domestic release, with some estimates ranging as high as $140 million. If such a lofty opening had been realized,Joker: Folie à Deuxwould have easily set an October release recordpreviously broken by the first film, which had a $96.2 million domestic opening, on its way to becoming the first R-rated film to surpass the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office, in addition to receiving 11 Academy Award nominations.
However, by the timeJoker 2was released theatrically,the domestic box-office projections for the sequel had plummeted to under $60 million. A tepid reception at Venice heralded dismal critical reviews anda historically bad audience scorefor the sequel, which ended upgrossing approximately $37.7 million in its opening weekendof domestic release.
While the $37.7 million figure was good enough forJoker 2, which grossed $77 million at the overseas box office in its opening weekend of release, to claim the top spot at the domestic box office, this wasa disastrous opening, especially given the sequel’s mammoth $200 million production cost.
On its current steeply declining trajectory,Joker 2is unlikely to reach the $96.2 million opening weekend total forJokerfor the entirety of the sequel’s domestic run. Moreover, asJokerstands as the most profitable comic-book-based film in history, due to the film’s relatively modest $70 million production cost, the needlessly expensive sequel is poised to become one of the biggest financial disasters in recent Hollywood history.
Joker: Folie à Deux Is an Anti-Audience Sequel That Doesn’t Appeal to Anyone
Joker: Folie a Deux
Joker: Folie à Deux is the sequel to Todd Phillips' critically acclaimed comic book thriller Joker. Reprising his Academy Award-winning performance as the failed comedian Arthur Fleck, Joaquin Phoenix revisits the iconic DC character alongside Lady Gaga, who makes her debut as Joker’s lover Harley Quinn in this standalone continuity of the DC Universe.
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Just as the box-office failure ofFuriosa: A Mad Max Sagaproved to Warner Bros., the studio behindJoker 2, that audiences didn’t want to see aMad Maxspin-off film, the box-office failure of the sequel has made it blindingly clear to the studio thatJokerfans didn’t want to see a musical sequel.
Through a deceptive marketing campaign thatminimized the sequel’s musical element,Joker 2left audiences feeling alienated and angry, as the sequel’s marketing campaign, in which the trailers feature scenes that don’t appear in the film, promised audiences a viewing experience that the sequel doesn’t deliver upon.
Here’s Who Would’ve Played Joker in Folie à Deux’s Fictional TV Movie
The Joker sequel features a running plot point regarding the existence of a TV movie.
Whileco-writer and director Todd Phillips, along with stars Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, said that they don’t consider the sequel to be a musical,Joker: Folie à Deuxdoesn’t seem to have been made for any particular audience at all, certainly fans of the first film. In fact, the boring, dreary sequel displays utter contempt for viewers who became emotionally invested in the villainous transformation of Phoenix’s character, Arthur Fleck, by putting Arthur, and by implicationJokerfans, on trial through lethargic courtroom scenes, which serve to drain the sequel of energy.
The result is the rare sequel thatseems to hate its core audience, as well as itself, in equal measure. As punishment for embracing the crazed spirit of the previous film,audiences are subjected to a claustrophobic, slow-moving sequelin which Arthur, much like the audience, becomes a passive, powerless observer.
Joker: Folie à Deux Is the Worst-Rated Comic Book Movie of All time
WhileJokerreceived mixed reviews at the time of its release and indeed became one of themost polarizing filmsof the past decade, the fiery debate and passion that the film ignited among its detractors and supporters propelled the movie at the box office and enabledJokerto burrow itself deeply within the public consciousness, primarily through Joaquin Phoenix’s brilliant titular performance, for which he deservedly won a Best Actor Oscar.
In contrast, the overwhelmingly negative audience and critical reaction toJoker 2, which presently carriesan abysmal 33% critical rating and 31% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, is reflected in the sequel’satrocious D Cinemascore rating, the lowest recorded rating for a major studio comic book movie. Such a historically bad grade is indicative of a complete audience rejection of the sequel, to the point where polled viewers would actively discourage family and friends from seeingJoker 2as if the sequel was cursed.
Joker: Folie à Deux Arrived Too Late After Joker
WhenJokerwas released in 2019, comic book movies were at the peak of their popularity. During this period,Aquaman, released in 2018, andCaptain Marvel, released in 2019, both eclipsed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office, while the firstVenomfilm, released in 2018, overcame sharply negative reviews to gross more than $850 million at the worldwide box office.
WhileJoker: Folie à Deuxwas never going to equal the success ofJoker, especially given the sequel’s horrible reviews,the sequel would have benefited much more from the impact ofJokerif it had been released several years earlier, perhaps as recently as 2022, whenJokerstill carried the aura of being a pop culture phenomenon.
The Joker Sequel Made a Huge Mistake and Paid the Price
The Joker sequel’s disjointed storyline failed to resonate with fans of the predecessor.
However, thecomic book movie universehas changed greatly in the past five years, specifically in terms of the difference between how audiences perceive comic book movies today compared to 2019. In contrast to the halcyon period between 2018 and 2019, the comic-book movie genre has left a trail of box-office casualties in recent years, as seen with the 2023Captain Marvelsequel,The Marvels, which became the lowest-grossing film within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Even ifJoker 2had satisfied fans, the sequel would have faced bleak commercial prospects, especially given the sequel’s inflated production cost, which isn’t visible in the film in terms of CGI-heavy scenes and spectacular stunt sequences. With all these factors working against it,Joker 2was probably destined to be a box-office failure, even if the sequel had been as good as the original.Joker: Folie à Deuxis playing in theaters now.
