Joker 2 Opens With $120 Million Worldwide, Less Than Half Of The Original

Sequels typically open higher than their predecessors, but Joker: Folie à Deux would have been hard pressed to match the $96.2 million opening weekend of the first Joker movie in 2019. But over the past few weeks, the early projections for the Joker sequel were continuously revised downward. Now, Joker: Folie à Deux is estimated to have opened with only $39 million, and even that total may drop when the final numbers are released.

The original Joker had $152.2 internationally on its first weekend, bringing its global haul to $248.4 million on its way towards $1.079 billion worldwide. That was a record for an R-rated film until it was broken by Deadpool & Wolverine earlier this year. By comparison, Folie à Deux had $81.1 million in other countries, bringing its global debut to only $121.1 million, which is under half what the first film made in that time.

Joker was extremely profitable thanks to its relatively low $60-70 million budget. The sequel reportedly cost as much as $190-200 million to make, and that's why its performance is so disastrous for Warner Bros. Pictures. Even if the film has a huge haul in Japan and China--where it hasn't opened yet--there isn't much hope that Joker 2 can break even. Instead, it's likely that this Joker movie will cost the studio a considerable amount of money.

THR attributes Folie à Deux's poor performance to bad word of mouth. The sequel received a D+ CinemaScore from audiences, which is a rarity for superhero-related films. Critics were similarly unimpressed with the Joker follow-up. If the film sinks even further next weekend, it may not stay in theaters very long.

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