I can't believe that the final box office numbers for Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, a failed stand-up comic and clown who finds himself imprisoned after embarking on a killing spree as Joker. I thought 2019's Joker was revolutionary, delivering a beautiful and gripping take on the iconic DC Comics supervillain, but I found it a shame the sequel wasn't so well received.

I saw Joker: Folie à Deux as soon as it was released in October 2024. As a huge Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga fan, I loved the highly-anticipated sequel, and thought its subversive and polarizing narrative and arthouse style was exactly what a box office numbers for Joker: Folie à Deux, but there may still be hope for the 2024 sequel.

Joker: Folie À Deux's Final Box Office Total Is So Much Lower Than The Original Movie

2019's Grossed Over $1 Billion At The Global Box Office

Joker broke major box office records following its release in October 2019. As well as earning many accolades, including two Academy Awards (Best Actor for Phoenix and Best Original Score, deservedly, for Hildur Guðnadóttir), I was thrilled to see Joker become the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever with a total global gross of $1.079 billion. Joker was the first and only R-rated movie to cross $1 billion prior to the 2024 release of Marvel Studios' Deadpool & Wolverine, which also bumped it off the top spot. Joker: Folie à Deux has not matched this huge level of success.

In the days before Joker: Folie à Deux hits streaming service Max, Warner Bros. has revealed the final box office total of the 2024 sequel. I was actually shocked to learn that Joker: Folie à Deux only earned a total of $206.4 million at the global box office (via Box Office Mojo), roughly a fifth of what the original Joker movie achieved five years prior. This just about cleared the movie's $200 million budget, a massive increase on its 2019 predecessor, but is far from enough for Joker: Folie à Deux to break even.

Why Joker 2's Box Office Total Is So Much Lower Than The Original Joker

Joker: Folie À Deux Divided Audiences

Following Joker's release in 2019, many called for a sequel to be developed which most wanted to include Arthur Fleck fully becoming the Joker from DC Comics and waging war across Todd Phillips' gritty Gotham. Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix were hesitant to create a sequel, which perhaps led to them eventually developing a sequel far different to what many viewers actually wanted. I loved how subversive and unexpected Joker: Folie à Deux was, and I really appreciated that it was what the director and story wanted, not the fans, but others weren't so pleased with the outcome.

Todd Phillips' Joker duology is set in an alternate continuity to James Gunn and Peter Safran's newly-rebooted DC Universe and to Matt Reeves' The Batman franchise.

Billing Joker: Folie à Deux as a movie musical also likely alienated viewers against the sequel. After watching Lady Gaga in A Star is Born, I knew this didn't mean Joker: Folie à Deux would be all-singing, all-dancing, and I love a movie musical, so this didn't put me off. Many don't share these opinions, however, so perhaps would have been put off from going to theaters to catch Folie à Deux, especially when audiences' relationships to the theater-going experience is also changing. Joker: Folie à Deux may have been doomed from the start.

Joker: Folie À Deux's Box Office Numbers Prove An Early Streaming Release Is For The Best

Joker: Folie À Deux Is Available On Max On December 13, 2024

Warner Bros. has confirmed that Joker: Folie à Deux, Warner Bros, which is already available for home purchase, will hit streaming service Max on Friday, December 13, 2024, before releasing on HBO linear on December 14. This is a little over two months - 70 days - after the movie's premiere in theaters. I think this could be a huge advantage to Joker: Folie à Deux, as the movie releasing so early on streaming means that viewers previously put off by poor reviews can finally see it for themselves.

This could go one of two ways. Either more viewers watch Joker: Folie à Deux and agree with the consensus that the movie is disappointing and lackluster, or more viewers watch and realize that it actually isn't as bad as the wave of early criticisms and undue hate led many to believe. I suspect the latter will be the case, which could culminate in the overall performance scores for Joker: Folie à Deux going up. Unfortunately, this won't impact the movie's total box office numbers, which will ultimately be damning for Todd Phillips' Joker franchise.

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  The Batman Part II

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