Joker: Folie à Deux, otherwise seen as Joker 2, is stumbling at the box office, finding itself with a lackluster $40 million, which meant at the time, it debuted as #1. This is at least $10 million shy of projections, which ranged from $50 million to $65 million.
As reported by Variety, the flick’s quite a ways away from its 2019 predecessor, which nabbed $96.2 million at the box office during the same weekend. The film spells trouble for Warner Bros., which is already getting blasted within all sectors of the entertainment industry. Within games, it’s facing the ire of the internet for doubling down on live service while producing unsatisfying games (though Brandon saw the positives in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League) while within the film and TV industries, it’s facing the ire of people for shutting down Cartoon Network’s site, only to not keep every show from the CN’s library.
What’s worse is the heightened budget for the sequel. While its successful predecessor was made on $65 million budget, Joker: Folie à Deux inflated it to a whopping $200 million. Meanwhile, the film has a long way to go before it actually breaks even, considering budgets never take into account specifics like marketing, distribution, and such.
Per Variety’s sources, the film needs to generate a minimum of $450 million to break even, meaning its $121.1 million right now, based on Box Office Mojo at the time of writing, is a tepid start, but it could feasibly pick up.
