Joker 2’s cinematic pounding continues after a poor opening weekend has seen it reportedly lose roughly $70,000,000 (£53.5m) at the box office.
What’s more, it’s officially been rated as the worst comic book movie ever, as well as the worst film of 2024 – yes, even worse than Madame Web.
The movie musical, which received mixed reviews out of Venice Film Festival, where it premiered, has seen its Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score plummet on the review aggregator site – almost halving – from 63% to 33% in the past few days.
It’s also so far only scraped 31% with audiences on the Popcornmeter, from over 2,500 fan reviews, meaning it’s very much rotten.
But that appears to have been just the start of Joker: Folie à Deux’s woes, for it has become the first Hollywood comic book movie in history to to receive a dismal D CinemaScore rating from opening night audiences.
In comparison, the original billion dollar-earning Joker film got an encouraging B+, while even Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis – a hugely divisive movie that’s also currently foundering at the box office – managed better with a D+.
CinemaScore polls early viewers’ reactions to a movie to measure its appeal.
Madame Web, the lacklustre Spider-Man spin-off starring Dakota Johnson and Sydney Sweeney that was lambasted upon arrival earlier this year – even being mocked at the Oscars – earned a C+, as did Morbius in 2022.
The Marvels and The Flash also fared significantly better, both earning a B according to The Hollywood Reporter, despite ending up box office bombs and the baggage surrounding controversial lead actor Ezra Miller.
Collider reports that a D also puts the sequel in the same camp as notorious turkeys like Movie 43.
And while Folie à Deux licks its wounds over that, the opening weekend financial stats now available do not paint a pretty picture.
It’s made just $40m (£30.6m) at the US box office, which is massively down on predictions of $70m (£53.5m) from just three weeks ago, and combined with international results of $81.1m (£62m) puts it at $121.1m (£92.6m) total so far.
The movie cost at least twice the original Joker’s pricetag of $55m (£42m), with reports putting it at around $190m (£145m) according to AP after director Todd Phillips denied that it was as high as $200m (£153m).
So it’s looking like a loss so far of nearly $70m (£53.5m).
Now of course Folie à Deux’s box office can still improve, but with the oomph of opening weekend past, it’s unlikely to be to any notable degree.
Not everyone has slammed Joker 2 though, with Metro’s four-star review praising it as ‘a genius take on the genre’.
Coppola has also come out in support of his fellow filmmaker, writing on Instagram: ‘Ever since the wonderful The Hangover, he’s always been one step ahead of the audience, never doing what they expect. Congratulations to Joker: Folie à Deux.’