Hollywood’s dismal 2024 run does not seem to be improving and “Joker: Folie a Deux” looks like yet another flop of the year. While the film’s budget was over three times larger than the original movie’s, it only made about half as much as the 2019 blockbuster in the first week. Here’s why “Joker 2” is such a big flop and what critics are saying about the movie.

For context, “Joker: Folie a Deux’s” first-weekend collection at the domestic box office was a mere $40 million which was nowhere close to the $96.2 million that its predecessor raked in 2019. While critics did not expect the movie to do wonders after the reviews, its collections even fell short of the $50 million that was expected from the movie.

The original “Joker” received both critical and financial success with its lifetime box office collections of $1.07 billion – which looks even more splendid as it was made on a budget of just around $65 million. The movie’s lead actor Joaquin Phoenix also won an Oscar for his performance in that movie.

Joker: Folie a Deux’s Production Costs Were Much Higher

Joker 2 had a weak opening despite its massive production budget of $200 million production, which doesn’t even account for the money spent on its marketing.

One of the reasons the movie’s production costs were bloated compared to the 2019 release was the salary of its actors.

Joaquin Phoenix was reportedly paid $20 million for the movie which is over four times what he earned for the 2019 movie. Lady Gaga, who boasts of an impressive net worth of $350 million. was also said to have paid $12 million for the movie.

The movie’s makeup, special effects, and set design costs were also higher than its predecessor. Notably, the movie also has musical numbers that invariably balloon the budget since they require expensive set design along with extensive rehearsals. Unfortunately, these musical scenes weren’t popular with audiences for the most part.

Why Joker 2 Tanked at the Box Office

“The decision to turn the sequel into a musical-slash-courtroom-drama is as perplexing as it sounds — and the results are so bad, they’re actually fascinating,” said Toronto-based critic, lecturer, and author Adam Nayman in his review.

Other critics were also quite unimpressed with “Joker: Folie a Deux” and the Washington Post said, “Rare is the blockbuster movie that consciously self-destructs and tries to take its audience along,”

The Wall Street Journal said that “it “amounts to waiting two hours for something to happen” while the New York Times called it “a dour, unpleasant slog.” The movie has only a 33% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes which shows how woefully it failed to win over both critics and regular movie goers.

Notably, the movie has also been weighed down by high expectations after the success of the original Joker movie. The sequel’s $40 million opening isn’t so bad when you compare it with other 2024 releases.

As Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore aptly said, “The creative risk that ‘Joker: Folie a Deux’ took is commendable, but very tough critical reviews as well as a mixed moviegoer reaction made for a challenging marketplace environment that rendered an otherwise respectable $40 million domestic debut a disappointment when balanced against the film’s massive, reported budget and huge across the board expectations.”

Meanwhile, Warner Bros has admitted that the movie failed to win over audiences. “The movie didn’t land with audiences the way we wanted it to,” said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros’ president of domestic distribution.

2024 Hasn’t Been a Pleasant Year for Hollywood

Joker 2 happens to be the second movie to tank at the box office in as many weeks. Francis Ford Coppola’s grand opus ‘Megalopolis’, which was conceptualized decades ago, raked in just $4 million in its opening weekend. While it wasn’t a sequel like Joker 2, critics said that both the movie and Coppola were out of touch with the current times. Critics were not impressed by its editing, screenplay, and visual effects – and some even found the direction and writing to be below par.

2024 started on a somber note for the movie industry and the Memorial Day weekend was the worst weekend since the ’90s with domestic collections of only $126 million. For context, in the past, it wasn’t unusual for a single movie to clock collections above that level during the weekend which is quite popular among moviegoers.

The growing popularity of streaming is one of the reasons movies haven’t been performing as well. With consumers spoilt for choices for entertainment, moviemakers would need to make features that can lure people into cinemas.

Notably, box office collections haven’t yet risen to pre-pandemic years and while collections have risen from the 2020 lows and last year was the best year since 2019 – thanks to the splendid success of Barbie and Oppenheimer – they are not expected to reach pre-pandemic levels by 2026.

Why Do Production Houses Make So Many Sequels?

To be sure, moviemakers making so many sequels like “Joker: Folie a Deux” is not surprising as data shows they tend to do better at the box office. Notably, of the 20 top-gross movies at the box office this century, 13 have been sequels. Also, data shows that only five of the top 60 box office films since 2016 are truly original movies. Sequels have consistently raked in more money than movies based on original ideas so it makes perfect sense that studios will focus on them. Incidentally, Disney’s Inside Out 2 is the best-performing movie this year.

warner bros stock

All said, the Joker sequel tanking at the box office would probably be the last thing that Warner Bros. would have wanted at this juncture. The company had to write down the value of its cable networks and the stock has lost almost a third of its market cap in 2024 despite broader markets giving strong double-digit returns.

As for the movie industry, it is a warning sign that sequels are no longer the success formula that they used to be. Disney incidentally might already have read the writing on the wall and has cut down on the number of sequels it makes while stressing that it will prioritize quality over quantity.