By The final “Joker: Folie a Deux” box-office numbers came in even lower than expected, the film dropping a further 45% on Sunday to result in a final domestic opening weekend of $37.8 million.
That’s less than 40% of the original film’s $96.2 million haul, and with such a drop-off, we could well see the film’s entire domestic gross by the end of its run coming in at an amount below the first film’s opening weekend gross.
The world seems against the film – critics and audience poll numbers on aggregate sites are essentially tied in their dislike of the film (33% vs. 31% on RT, 45 vs. 42 on MC). Audience exit polls are dismal, including the infamous D CinemaScore – the first comic book movie in history to receive that low a grade.
The question now lies in regards to what the fallout from the film will be with THR going into that in a new feature piece. Director Todd Phillips reportedly spent the weekend in seclusion on a ranch property he owns, so he managed to avoid the worst of the meltdown.
No studio would turn down a sequel to such a successful first film, so the questions are now swirling over how the film had no test screening and how Phillips had such autonomy and final cut over the movie.
Unlike the first film where DC execs were involved, none were on this one and the project was essentially greenlit and moving forward well before James Gunn and Peter Safran took over DC – neither of them has any involvement in the film.
The piece also revealed that the ending of the first movie’s original script featured Phoenix’s Joker carving his face in front of a crowd rather than painting on a bloody smile like he does in the final cut.
Filmmaker Christopher Nolan killed that idea which is why it wasn’t in the first film. But with Nolan no longer at the studio, there wasn’t any resistance this time around.
The idea for the sequel reportedly came to Phoenix in a dream, and he and Phillips brought the idea to the studio who aren’t likely to give any filmmaker such autonomy again anytime soon.
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