In 2019, Joker released in theaters with financial and critical success. The movie earned over a billion dollars at the box office against a 55 million budget and was nominated for 11 Oscars. It Won two with actor Joaquin Phoenix winning best actor for his dedicated performance as Arthur Fleck and composer Hildur Guðnadottir winning best original score. With this amount of success, it was only inevitable that a sequel would be made and in June 2022, it was announced that director Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix would return to make a sequel to Joker. The movie was highly anticipated as Lady Gaga was cast as Harley Quinn. On October 4th, 2024, Joker Folie à Deux was released in theaters to a horrible reception financially and critically. The movie only earned 207.5 million at the box office which is over 80% less than its predecessor. It was disliked by both critics and general audiences alike, as Joker Folie à Deux earned a 31% rotten critics and audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and earned a D on Cinemascore, which is the lowest ever for a comic book movie. Joker Folie à Deux is a movie disaster but why it failed is a more interesting story.
The Increased Budget
In theory, giving Joker 2 a bigger budget is a good idea. Up the quality, give the crew a higher paychecks, and grant producers more freedom with casting and filming locations. The only problem is how much Warner Bros increased the budget, as they gave Joker Folie à Deux a 200 million dollar budget, over 70% more than the original Joker. This was an insanely risky choice as the only other R rated movie in film history with that high of a budget is Deadpool & Wolverine. Joker Folie à Deux would now have to make 450 million to break even at the box office. Giving any movie a 200 million dollar budget is risky, but giving an R rated movie a budget of 200 million is begging for disappointment.
Joker’s Success was Lightning in a Bottle
Joker was the first R rated movie to earn a billion dollars. However,Joker did not earn much past a billion either.Despite Joker being mostly well received, it did get some negative reviews as 32% of critics gave Joker a rotten review on Rotten Tomatoes. Some people disliked the dark nature and the preachy message of society, and it is very unlikely they would return for a sequel. Even if Joker Folie à Deux was positively received, it probably still wouldn’t have made a billion dollars due to the people who disliked the first movie not returning to see it in theaters.
Why a Musical?
Many fans of the first Joker were confused by the announcement that Joker 2 would be a musical. Following up any movie with a musical is odd, but following up a character study about the Joker with a musical sequel is extremely puzzling. Another issue is that musicals are not known as box office money makers. There has never been a live action musical to reach a billion dollars. According to ‘Culture Crave’ the idea of a Joker sequel being a musical was heavily pushed forward by actor Joaquin Phoenix who gave the idea to director Todd Phillips, who was given free reign by Warner Brothers to “do his own thing.”
Baffling Story and Narrative (SPOILERS)
There is a reason this movie earned so many negative reviews. Musical choice aside, Joker Folie à Deux makes some confusing narrative choices, like making it a courtroom drama that retreads most of the first movie’s events. The movie also insults the fans of the first Joker movie with the message about his cult following only caring about the Joker, not Arthur Fleck which is a clear analogy to how the audience doesn’t love Arthur, but loves the Joker. The most perplexing narrative choice is the ending of the film, where Arthur Fleck announces to the court that there is no Joker, it’s just Arthur and he doesn’t want to be that person anymore. After a bomb at the courtroom, Arthur escapes to see Harley but she doesn’t want anything to do with Arthur and leaves him. He is brought back to Arkham and is stabbed and killed by a random inmate. When Arthur collapses, the inmate carves a smile into his face heavily implying Arthur was never the real Joker, he was only inspired by the real Joker. This ending was resoundingly hated by critics and audiences. “Isn’t that just ruining the whole purpose of the first movie? You’re telling me that we haven’t been watching the Joker, the guy in the title, but just a mentally ill man pretending to be something he’s not?” says Olivia Baez, a sophomore at Towson University.
In Conclusion
There are many reasons as to why Joker Folie à Deux was a catastrophic disaster, but the biggest mistake was Warner Brothers giving Todd Phillips too much freedom to do what he wanted with this movie. It’s always great for studios to give talented people the chance to create the story they want to create, but there still should be some limitations and supervision enforced. This movie’s failure will be a lesson learned by Warner Brothers for their future projects.
