The highly anticipated film, “Joker: Folie a Dexu,” which is the sequel to the 2019 smash success “Joker,” is now projected to lose between $150 million to $200 million after completely bombing at the box office. If you go over to Rotten Tomatoes, you’ll quickly see that both critics and audiences are in agreement that this movie sucks. Whenever audiences and critics actually agree on something, you can almost guarantee that this is a project that is objectively good or bad depending on which way the reviews swing.
“The sequel to “Joker” (2019) was expected to perform much better, especially considering that the original raked in just over $1 billion. But the Joaquin Phoenix-led film, which also stars Lady Gaga, only earned $51.5 million domestically and $165 million globally after two weeks of release, per Variety,” The Daily Wire said.
The original 2019 film — which didn’t need a sequel to begin with –made $96.2 million domestically and $248.4 million globally in just its first three days at the box office. Not only that, but it won two Academy Awards, including a Best Actor award for Phoenix due to his absolutely stellar performance as the lead character.
It’s follow-up cost a staggering $200 million to actually make and had a budget of around $100 million to market and distribute the film. In order to break even the movie needed to make around $450 million. That’s definitely not going to happen. “Insiders” cited by Variety say the Joker sequel is going to end up costing the studio hundreds of millions of dollars.
Warner Bros. disagrees with these predictions, however. “Any estimates suggested by anonymous ‘insiders’ or ‘rival executives’ are grossly wrong and continues a trend where rumor is reported as fact,” a Warner Bros. spokesperson said in a statement. “The film continues to play in theatrical release, included with this week’s opening in China, and will continue to earn revenue throughout its home viewing and ancillary run.”
The studio is also hoping to recoup some of the money when “Joker 2” is released on streaming at the end of the month. “Folie à Deux” is very different from the first “Joker” film, which was a dark, gritty antihero tale. The sequel is a musical with a love story intertwined, which didn’t resonate with audiences. The movie has a 33% rating from critics and a 32% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. “The falloff in quality from ‘Joker,’ a genuinely searing innovation in comic-book movies, to this one is so steep that it’s comparable to the dropoff between ‘The Hangover’ and ‘The Hangover Part II,’” the Wall Street Journal critic wrote.
The film reviewer from The Atlantic said of the Joker sequel, “The musical performances are underpowered, lacking much movement, personality, or surprise. In fact, the film’s problems are so glaring that one can’t help but wonder about what happened behind the scenes.”
People weren’t pleased with the whole musical angle either. One audience member stated that they went to see a Joker flick, not a musical. It really seems like director Todd Phillips purposefully crafted a film to give his audience the middle finger, doing everything he knew they would hate in order to sabotage his own success. Why? Because he didn’t like the fact a lot of men in the culture identified with Arthur. But you know what? It’s people like him that have caused many males to feel the isolation and frustration they feel today. Constantly being told you’re toxic and nothing about you is special and you can easily be replaced by a woman and on the list goes.
These are all left-wing ideas. And now they have spawned a generation of men who, like Arthur Fleck, feel society has left them behind and their ticked off about it. It’s not their fault they could relate to him. It’s theirs. And they know that. It makes them angry. They don’t want to take responsibility for the destruction they have caused.
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Eventually, the chickens come home to roost.