Joker: Folie à Deux bombed in its opening weekend box office as it came below expectations and received poor audience scores.
In the days leading up to its release in theaters, the majority of the responses from critics and fans who watched the advanced special screenings have been negative, a huge contrast to the first film's gigantic reception.
While the film was expected to top the box office for its opening weekend, there have been questions on whether it will be able to replicate the same numbers as the first film. As it turns out, it was far behind what we had expected.
Joker: Folie à Deux Nabs Disappointing $40 Million Opening Weekend Box Office
According to reports, Joker: Folie à Deux grossed $40 million in its domestic opening weekend, taking the top spot at the box office chart.
It was behind the initial box office projects as it was expected to gross around $50-65 million before it arrived in theaters last weekend.
The film's disappointing box office is below the opening weekend numbers for last year's box office flops such as The Flash and The Marvels. It is also almost on par with Morbius which opened at $39 million.
It does not help that Joker: Folie à Deux has a CinemaScore of D, the lowest ever for a comic book movie. It suggests that the overwhelming majority of the audience who watched the film on opening night did not like it.
There is no doubt that this is not the news that Warner Bros. was hoping for considering that the sequel cost $200 million and there were expectations that it would closely replicate the massive success of the first film in 2019.
Given its massive budget, it would need to gross around $450 million to break even, a scenario that is a toss-up given its performance so far.
The negative word-of-mouth likely affected the general public's interest in watching the film in theaters. There were also reports that people walked out during screenings and showed their disdain at the musical numbers.
It would be interesting to see how it plays out in the coming weeks and whether it will be able to overcome the negative reception and remain a solid box-office performer.
Joker: Folie à Deux is showing in theaters everywhere.
What do you think of the film's box office performance? Let us know in the comments!
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