Laughs can be heard at the Warner Bros. lot over the weekend but it's likely due to various not-so-positive reasons. Joker: Folie à Deux, the sequel to the billion-dollar 2019 hit, stumbled at the box office with a $40 million opening.
 |
| Joker: Folie à Deux. (C) Warner Bros. |
The opening is less than half of what its predecessor ($96 million) did five years ago. That film legged out and banked $335 million by the end of its run. This one might even have a hard time to match that opening weekend.
While arguably nobody wanted a sequel to the first film, on paper, it seems like the sequel could still deliver. Todd Philips, Joaquin Phoenix, & the rest of the main team behind Joker returned for this film while Lady Gaga boarded the project as Harleen Quinzel. The first trailer revealed during CinemaCon 2024 was received well - even surpassed Barbie as the most-watched trailer for the studio. Warner Bros. was confident too that the lightning would strike twice as they premiered this sequel during the 81st Venice International Film Festival.
However, cracks started to appear. Critics at Venice weren't so hot anymore on the project and more critics started to sour on the film as more went to see the actual output. Aside from the well received trailers, Joker further caught everyone's attention when it won the Golden Lion during the 76th Venice International Film Festival. That film felt much more relevant too with the events happening during its release year. Quite the opposite happened to Folie à Deux and those factors likely stalled its momentum. The musical angle debate started to show up too. Most strikingly, the novelty factor was gone.
The film carries a budget over $190 million, various reports say. With a 33% Rotten Tomatoes score and a disastrous 'D' Cinemascore, expect a rough decline in the coming weeks. Perhaps this should be a warning to the executives currently thinking if a direct Barbie sequel or a separate Barbie movie would do well at the box office.
Fortunately, not everything was doomed for October. In second place, The Wild Robot enjoyed a solid performance this weekend grossing $18.7 million which is just off 47 percent. Again, longevity is the name of the game for this feature and this weekend suggests that it could be in play. The DreamWorks film has now collected $63.9 million.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice also saw another strong drop - just off 35 percent this weekend with $10.3 million. In five weeks, the sequel has already banked $265 million.
In fourth place, the bleeding has lessened for Transformers One. The animated film earned $5.35 million which is just down 41 percent from last weekend for a three-week total of $47 million.
Speak No Evil, meanwhile, is locking its profitability now. The 2024 remake just saw a 34 percent decline this weekend with $2.8 million. The $15 million production has now grossed $32.5 million domestic and another $34.8 million overseas. Deadpool & Wolverine added $1.55 million this weekend for a total of $633 million.
Despite losing a thousand theaters this weekend, MUBI's The Substance still managed to just drop 32 percent this weekend with $1.35 million. The buzzy horror has now collected $9.73 million domestically.
Another Lionsgate dump White Bird opened this weekend with $1.53 million and an outstanding A+ Cinemascore. Deadline reports that the studio struggled to sell the film due to its setting which led to delays for its release. Megalopolis seemed to close its theatrical run quickly as it dropped 70% this weekend with $1 million for a total of $6.49 million.
Fortunately, overall weekend box office is still up vs. last year when The Exorcist: Believer topped the box office. However, with this low opening for Joker, the pressure is on for other October titles to open well to match the box office total given by Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and Five Night at Freddy's during the second half of October 2023.
