The first Joker movie blew away critics, scored big at the box office, and stunned DC fans everywhere. The sequel... didn't. So what went wrong with Joker: Folie à Deux?
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00:00The first Joker movie blew away critics, scored big at the box office, and stunned DC fans
00:05everywhere.
00:06The sequel, uh, didn't.
00:08So what went wrong with Joker Folia-do?
00:11Joaquin Phoenix may be one of the most revered actors of his generation, or any generation
00:15for that matter.
00:16Phoenix has received four Academy Awards nominations and won one — for Joker, no less.
00:20As one critic noted for MovieWeb,
00:22"[Joaquin Phoenix isn't an actor defined by his films, but an actor who defines the films
00:26he is in."
00:27This was certainly the case for Joker, which was about one of the most famous villains
00:31in cinema history, but ultimately owes its reputation and its huge box office takings
00:35to Phoenix's tour-de-force performance.
00:37"'Ain't it beautiful?"
00:39Unfortunately, Joker Folia-do earned just $40 million on opening weekend, less than
00:44half of what the first film made.
00:46It seems that, despite his accolades and accomplishments, Joaquin Phoenix just isn't much of a box office
00:51draw.
00:52Sure, he may be a household name, but those households aren't going to see Bo is Afraid
00:55or Inherent Vice.
00:57Phoenix's global total is $3.6 billion, which seems impressive, until you consider that
01:02nearly a third of that comes from the first Joker, a movie that made over $1 billion at
01:06the global box office.
01:07Before Joker, Phoenix's biggest blockbusters came decades ago, with Gladiator and Signs,
01:12two movies in which he played supporting roles.
01:14Yet, even for Phoenix's biggest box office triumph, it wasn't his name that put butts
01:19in seats.
01:20It was the Joker, one of only a few characters to be an opening weekend box office record
01:24holder twice.
01:25Of course, Joker-folia-do didn't need a big star in the title role, because the Clown
01:29Prince of Crime is one of the most bankable box office characters in cinema history.
01:33Batman opened to a then-record $40 million in 1989, on its way to $411 million worldwide
01:40with Jack Nicholson dancing around in a purple suit and white grease paint.
01:44Nearly 20 years later, The Dark Knight broke the opening weekend record with $158 million,
01:49ending its run with just over $1 billion worldwide, largely driven by Heath Ledger's Academy Award-winning
01:54turn as the character.
01:55"...let's put a smile on that face."
01:59Even Jared Leto's much-maligned performance in Suicide Squad helped power that 2016 film
02:04to $745 million worldwide, despite a less-than-stellar response from fans.
02:10Sure, each of those Joker movies featured another key X Factor, namely, this guy.
02:14But it's also a fact that the Caped Crusader's biggest hits tend to feature the Joker.
02:18But that's part of the problem.
02:19The Joker is overexposed.
02:21In the 19 years between Batman and The Dark Knight, he was only in one movie, 1993's Batman
02:26Mask of the Phantasm, a spinoff from Batman the Animated Series.
02:30Since The Dark Knight, however, the Joker has been in five.
02:32That's a lot of Joker, and it seems that the failure of Joker, folio-do, has suggested
02:36that people might finally be tired of this iconic villain.
02:40Madonna was one of the most popular pop stars of her generation, but that star power didn't
02:44translate to the silver screen, with a per-film average of just $59 million.
02:48Why is this relevant to Joker?
02:50Because it's starting to appear that the musician many consider to be Madonna's successor,
02:54Lady Gaga, is also destined to bomb at the box office.
02:57"...come on, get happy, better chase all your cares away."
03:05Lady Gaga has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide, and became the first female artist
03:09to score three singles, selling 10 million copies worldwide.
03:13She's even more impressive on streaming, with more than 31 million followers and over 100
03:18million monthly listeners, making her one of Spotify's most-streamed artists of all
03:22time.
03:23So, do all of Lady Gaga's little monsters show up to see her movies?
03:26Eh, not so much.
03:27Let's just say it's more of a bad romance.
03:30Lady Gaga's films have earned less than $870 million worldwide, with an average of just
03:35$110 million per film.
03:37Her only certifiable hit was A Star is Born in 2018, with $431 million.
03:42Next is 2021's House of Gucci, with $147 million, but given that movie had a budget of $7.5
03:48million, the biopic needed a lot more to make bank.
03:52Even if Joker Foliadu tops A Star is Born, which it probably won't, the movie's reported
03:56$200 million budget will likely make this the biggest bomb of Gaga's career.
04:01Here's an unhappy truth for you, nobody asked for Joker Foliadu.
04:04Sure, the first Joker no doubt made Warner Bros.
04:07XX very happy indeed, but it turns out the studio paying for the sequel wanted it more
04:11than the moviegoers themselves.
04:13Joker was a major risk at the time.
04:15It was an R-rated, one-off Elseworlds tale that drastically reimagined the Joker and
04:19Batman mythos.
04:20Not only that, the subject matter was mostly a Trojan horse for what the movie really was
04:24— a character study of a lonely and isolated outcast on the fringe of an indifferent society
04:29who descends into madness and violence.
04:31More than a comic book movie, Joker was a tribute to Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver and
04:35King of Comedy.
04:36In fact, it didn't even try to disguise with the casting of Robert De Niro in a supporting
04:40role.
04:41The sequel failed miserably, and the studio knew it, based on that conservative $55 million
04:45budget.
04:46Instead, the gamble paid off in box office numbers and awards season gold.
04:50Joker worked so well because it was fierce, fresh, and original.
04:53It felt like a movie that shouldn't exist, one that somehow snuck past the suits.
04:57Joker Foliadu, however, feels like a cynical and greedy cash grab.
05:01Sure, fans often show up to franchise films that make no effort to disguise the fact that
05:04their main objective is to make money.
05:06But a wholly unnecessary sequel to Joker feels disingenuous and manipulative in a way movie
05:11goers could sense, which is one of the reasons why they chose to stay at home.
05:15Before Joker Foliadu, 2024 featured the return of a few other fan-favorite comic book characters
05:20making comebacks after a five-plus-year hiatus.
05:23That film was, of course, Deadpool and Wolverine, which opened to $211 million, more than Joker
05:28Foliadu will likely earn in its entire domestic run.
05:31Let's give the people what they came for!
05:33Why did Deadpool and Wolverine dominate while Joker Foliadu played like a bad joke?
05:38Well, don't let Wade Wilson's big comeback fool you.
05:41Comic book media fatigue is still very much a thing.
05:43In fact, it's likely that the success of Deadpool and Wolverine sucked up a lot of the audience's
05:47appetite for comic book movies this year, especially ones you can't take your kids to.
05:51Additionally, Deadpool and Wolverine brought back two beloved characters in their MCU debut
05:55in a way that didn't feel like a cash grab, even if, you know, it kinda was.
05:59If anything, the movie felt like an apology to the MCU fanbase for five years of underwhelming
06:04films.
06:05Meanwhile, Joker Foliadu felt like more of the same from Warner Bros., a contrived and
06:09confused continuation of a disconnected franchise that has now suffered five financial failures
06:13in a row.
06:15If you've turned on the news lately, you might have noticed that there's not a lot of sunshine
06:19and rainbows in the world right now.
06:20Sure, Joker and Foliadu feature a clown dancing to songs like Smile and What the World Needs
06:25Now, but that clown also happens to be a homicidal psychopath.
06:29These are not happy movies, and they aren't meant to be.
06:31But we are in a very different world in 2024 than we were in 2019, when Joker broke records.
06:36One look at the Top 10 box office charts from the past few years shows the kinds of
06:40films that moody-goers want to see.
06:42Spider-Man No Way Home topped the 2021 box office with nearly $2 billion by bringing
06:46back Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.
06:49Hello, Peter.
06:50Avatar The Way of Water topped the worldwide charts, while Top Gun Maverick won the day
06:54domestically in 2022 by telling stories of teamwork and heroism.
06:58Meanwhile, Barbie and the Super Mario Bros. movie were the big winners in 2023, offering
07:03cheerful, colorful comedies featuring world-famous IP.
07:06Sure, Oppenheimer was an outlier, but 2024 will likely conclude with fan-friendly flicks
07:11Inside Out 2 and Deadpool and Wolverine on top.
07:14You know what won't be on top?
07:15The dark, dour, and dreadful Joker Foliadu.
07:19Joker became a billion-dollar smash because it crossed the Venn diagram between two very
07:23different movie-going audiences, comic book movie fans, and prestige picture film buffs.
07:27In other words, it was a movie that was just as likely to attract your pretentious film
07:31professor as your buddies who show up opening night for every new Marvel movie.
07:35Joker Foliadu tried to replicate this recipe for success, and failed with both audiences.
07:39Sure, comic book movies tend to be critic-proof, as demonstrated by the so-so critical reviews
07:44for Joker, but the movie was bolstered by strong marks from fans, who loved it even
07:48if the critical establishment did not.
07:50Joker Foliadu is one of the rare occasions in modern movies where both the critics and
07:54fans absolutely loathe the movie.
07:56In fact, the fans may hate it even more.
07:58No doubt it's because Joker Foliadu is a confusing, ridiculous mess that moviegoers gave a Rare
08:03CinemaScore of D, the lowest ever for a comic book movie.
08:06A film can do fine in theaters if critics like it and fans don't.
08:10A movie can make millions at the box office if fans like it but critics don't.
08:13But if critics and fans hate it, then you're in trouble.
08:16Whose idea was it to follow up an Academy Award-winning character study of a psychopathic
08:21serial murderer with a musical?
08:23Maybe they figured they wanted to make full use of Lady Gaga, but turning Joker Foliadu
08:27into a musical has to rank as one of the most misguided decisions in modern film history.
08:32When the rumors of Joker Foliadu being a musical first trickled in, we thought maybe it just
08:36featured a few musical numbers, which kind of made sense given it was a journey into
08:40the mind of two certifiable lunatics.
08:42Now we know for sure that, yes, in fact, Joker Foliadu is a full-blown musical.
08:47The choice is even more bizarre considering that movie musicals have been out of fashion
08:50for film since before most Joker fans were even born.
08:53You can spend however long you like debating the reason why many musicals flop, but the
08:57simple truth is that moviegoers aren't into them.
08:59Sure, there are outliers, but movies like Wonka and Mean Girls hid the fact they were
09:04musicals, while other rare hits tend to come from musicals with a built-in audience from
09:07Broadway.
09:08And even that is no guarantee.
09:09That's what I say to you!
09:12Making Joker Foliadu wasn't a creative swing and a miss, but a critical, unforced error
09:17that inflicted tremendous damage on its financial prospects.
09:21Raise your hand if you had to look up the term Foliadu.
09:23Per reference, the definition, according to Merriam-Webster, is the presence of the same
09:27or similar delusional ideas in two persons closely associated with one another.
09:31In other words, the Joker and Harley Quinn.
09:33Sure, you can admire the creativity here, as this title is more engaging than, say,
09:37Joker 2, but let's be honest, there's a reason movie studios usually just place numbers at
09:42the end of sequels.
09:43It works.
09:44Most moviegoers are busy, so if you're trying to break out from beyond the perpetually online,
09:48it helps to have a title that doesn't confuse people.
09:50A studio can take a risk by calling the sequel to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, because
09:5499 percent of moviegoers know that's Batman.
09:57But asking moviegoers to know French and psychological terminology to understand the
10:00title for Joker Foliadu?
10:03That's a stretch.
10:04The title was just one piece of a larger puzzle, too.
10:06From the movie's name, to its underwhelming reiterative marketing, to that absolutely
10:10outrageous $200 million budget, everything about Joker Foliadu reeked of hubris.
10:15In the end, this is a movie that truly took its audience for granted.
10:18Alas, said audience just didn't show up as a result, which is why Joker Foliadu bombed
10:23at the box office.