The box office projection for Joker: Folie à Deux suggested that the sequel will have disappointing numbers in its opening weekend box office.
The new film sees Joaquin Phoenix reprise his Oscar-winning role of Arthur Fleck as he navigates his life in Arkham Asylum, the trial surrounding his crimes in the first film, and his newfound romance with Lady Gaga's Lee Quinzel.
Considering that the first film was a billion-dollar hit and received many accolades, fans have been wondering whether the sequel will have the same reception. Unfortunately, it looks like that won't be the case at all.
Joker: Folie à Deux Projected to Have Lower Opening Weekend Box Office
A recent box office tracking report projected that Joker: Folie à Deux will likely gross around $55-60 million in its domestic opening weekend release and $140 million worldwide.
It is a significant decline from the first film which opened at $96.2 million domestically and $248.2M worldwide, surpassing expectations at that time.
While the numbers are still decent, it is considered to be disappointing since the film reportedly has a massive budget of $200 million, a huge increase from the first film's $55-70 million.
It also does not help that the critics' reviews have been divisive. As of the writing of this article, it has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 48%, which is also lower than the first film's 69%.
The sequel took a big swing in continuing Arthur Fleck's story as it integrated musical elements with the help of Gaga's Lee Quinzel, who is being prominently featured in the promotional materials.
After all, the studio is counting on Gaga to attract more female audiences to the theaters even if she doesn't have the same screen time as Phoenix.
However, based on the early word-of-mouth, there have been a lot of criticisms of the film's musical elements and thought that it did not work with the overall narrative that the film was trying to pull off.
It would be interesting to see what kind of audience reception it will have once it finally releases in all theaters nationwide this weekend.
Joker: Folie à Deux is set to arrive in North American theaters this Friday.
What do you think of the film's box office projection? Let us know in the comments!
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