Amid declining domestic revenue estimates over the last three weeks, Warner Bros.' “Joker: Folie à Deux” landed with a dismal $40 million in box-office revenue for its opening weekend, according to Comscore.
Weeks ago, this second edition in the “Joker” franchise was expected to pull in as much as $70 million. Poor word-of-mouth marketing, reviews, and exit-poll moviegoer opinions were determined to be the reason for the drop in results.
Rotten Tomatoes posted a low 33% approval rating -- coming from film reviewers and movie fans. By way of comparison, the first “Joker” movie, in 2019, posted a 68% approval. The current movie also earned a “D” CinemaScore from moviegoers.
In more difficult news, analysts say the movie cost $190 million to make. Making up some of the deficit, the international box office for the movie pulled in $81 million.
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Warner Bros. spent a modest $17.3 million in national TV advertising for this latest version of the franchise, according to EDO Ad EnGage.
Five years ago, the first “Joker” posted a strong $96.2 million in North America, according to IMDb Box Office Mojo, on a very modest $55 million production budget. Warner Bros. spent $21.6 million on national TV advertising for that movie -- also debuting in early October.
The first movie totaled $1.08 billion ($335 million domestically, $743 million internationally) for its entire theatrical run -- which made it the highest-grossing R-rated movie at that time.
In second place for the just-completed weekend: Universal Studios’ “The Wild Robot” in its second week of release at $18.7 million. Warner Bros.' “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” (fifth week) at $10.3 million; Paramount’s “Transformers One” (third week) at $5.4 million and Universal’s “Speak No Evil” (fourth week) at $2.8 million.