Joker: Folie à Deux Off To A Slow Start At The Box Office, But That's No Surprise

Joker: Folie à Deux is in theaters now, and, as predicted, it is not performing as well as the 2019 film right out of the gate. The sequel earned $7 million from its Thursday previews in the US, according to Variety--that is just over half of the $13.3 million that the first movie made in Thursday screenings five years ago.

2019's Joker was a runaway success that went on to make over $1 billion against its relatively modest $65 million budget. The sequel, meanwhile, was never expected to match the success of the first. It had a significantly larger production budget and is tracking to earn between $50 million-$65 million for its opening weekend stateside. The original movie, meanwhile, made $96.2 million for its opening frame.

For comparison, Joker: Folie à Deux's Thursday previews were less than The Flash ($9.7 million) and a bit more than The Marvels ($6.6 million).

Writer-director Todd Phillips commented on a rumor that Joker: Folie à Deux's production budget was $200 million, saying that figure was "absurd." He also commented on how people who got riled up about the bigger budget are missing the point.

"I read these stories, and it seems like they're on the side of the multinational corporations," Phillips said. "They're like, 'Why does it cost so much?' They sound like studio executives. Shouldn't people be happy that we got this money out of them, and we used it to go hire a bunch of crew people who can then feed their families?"

For the first Joker, Phillips reportedly declined an upfront salary in exchange for earning a bigger piece of the movie's box office numbers. After the movie made $1 billion-plus, Phillips is said to have earned more than $100 million. Warner Bros. agreed to the deal with Phillips because the studio reportedly did not see Joker being such a big hit. It seems unlikely Phillips will earn such a payday for the sequel.

Not only was the first Joker a smashing success commercially, it also earned star Joaquin Phoenix an Oscar for his portrayal of Arthur Fleck.

For more on Folie à Deux, check out GameSpot's breakdown of the film's shocking ending.

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