No one’s smiling over “Joker: Folie a Deux” this weekend.
The anticipated sequel got crushed by critics and fans alike and will make just $47 million in its opening frame.
The 2019 original generated $96 million in its first weekend en route to a U.S./international split of $335 million/$743 million, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com.
The musical sequel will be lucky to break $80 million domestically given the tepid opening and tortured word of mouth – witness that “D” CinemaScore.
Mild spoilers ahead.
You have to hand it to director/co-writer Todd Phillips. He didn’t follow the sequel blueprint. He held it up high and lit it on fire, Arthur Fleck-style.
No super heroic stunts. Musical numbers aplenty. Few shout-outs to the source material. Heck, Harley Quinn’s character, played by Lady Gaga, goes by “Lee” throughout the film. The film gleefully breaks DC Comics canon.
Is it any surprise FanBoy Nation stayed home?
Phillips’ resume (“Joker,” the “Hangover” franchise) earned him the right to have creative freedom.
Still, how on earth did Warner Bros. justify a reported $200 million budget? The first movie set the studio back just $55 million, a reasonable price by modern standards. (A shrewd indie director could have made the movie for far less, but still).
It’s a similar story with two other 2024 commercial duds.
“Megalopolis,” a fascinating think piece from Francis Ford Coppola, is even more anti-commercial than “Folie a Deux.” It, too, cost north of $100 million and may be lucky to break $15 million at U.S. theaters.
Director Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga – Part One” cost $100 million. It, too, underperformed at the box office, shuttling initial plans to release the second of a planned four-part “Saga” in theaters. The film earned $32 million domestically.
We want our best and brightest storytellers to swing for the fences now more than ever. We’re marinating in sequels, remakes, reboots and re-imaginings. It’s rare to see films that offer original yarns.
And that’s partly our fault.
Look at 2024’s top-grossing movies so far. Zero original stories. You have to scan down to the no. 11 slot, “It Ends with Us,” to find a film that hasn’t been told before on screen.
Filmmakers like Phillips, Coppola and Costner should tell their stories their way.
There’s a caveat to both “Megalopolis” and “Horizon.” In both cases the auteurs dug into their own pockets to defray the exorbitant budgets. Coppola shouldered the mother lode of his budget. Costner’s contributions are both murky – he kept changing the amount in press interviews – but considerable.
Phillips likely didn’t so much as open his wallet to help make “Folie a Deux.”
The legacy of these commercial duds is considerable. What studio will take a similar chance on a risky project moving forward? Will artists think twice before investing in their own visions?
If anything, executives will seek out even safer bets in 2025 and beyond.
In a way, we’re already there. “Skibidi Toilet: The Movie.”
Had Phillips, Coppola and Costner done all they could to reduce the budgets in question, their commercial failures would have hurt them, and Hollywood, much less.
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