Joker 2 Makes History With Shocking CinemaScore
Audiences were left stunned in 2019 when Joaquin Phoenix and Todd Phillips, then known as the director of The Hangover, got together to make Joker, a movie about Batman’s greatest villain…without Batman. Against all odds, the film won awards and made over a billion dollars at the box office, which made a studio push for a sequel inevitable. Alas, now Joker 2, with the absurd subtitle of Folie a Deux, is in theaters, and audiences hate it; as proof, it scored an abysmal D rating from CinemaScore, the best snapshot of an audience’s real reaction to a theatrical release.
The Worst Performing Comic Book Movie
A CinemaScore of a D is incredibly impressive, for all the wrong reasons, as it makes Joker 2 the worst-scoring superhero/comic book movie since the polling company was started. To put it in perspective, the Fantastic Four reboot was the old low-water mark, with a score of C-. Morbius had a C+.
Joker 2 is, by audience reaction, magnitudes worse than either Morbius, Fantastic Four, Madame Web, Jonah Hex, or even Green Lantern. Warner Bros Discovery’s hope for another repeat performance of a billion has been dashed, as now, the film will require a miracle to outperform The Marvels.
A Musical Courtroom Drama
Joker is a gritty, dark tale of a mentally ill man, Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), who is pushed to the edge of the abyss by society, and he chooses to take a leap. Joker 2 is a courtroom drama that literally relitigates the plot of the first film, with far less of Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn than you’d expect, and it’s also a musical. It is not a real musical, but a jukebox musical, which means there are no original songs, and it’s entirely 60s-70s tracks, so even in that aspect, the film doesn’t truly commit.
Makes DC Long For The Days Of Shazam And Blue Beetle
CinemaScore provided a breakdown of polled moviegoers explaining why they went to see Joker 2, with the majority going because it stars Joaquin Phoenix (43 percent) and Lady Gaga (39 percent), with an abysmal 7 percent saying they went because of good word of mouth. The film, once projected to bring in $50 million in its opening weekend (which was already a downgrade from the initial $75 million estimates), may settle in between $20-$30 million and is expected to drop heavily after that.
With a reported budget of $200 million, Warner Bros will lose more money on this film than they did Shazam: Fury of the Gods and Blue Beetle, and it won’t even be close.
On Par With Some Of The Worst Movies Ever Made
To put the D CinemaScore in context, going outside of superhero movies, Megalopolis has a score of D+, M. Night Shyamalan’s Avatar: The Last Airbender earned a C, and even 50 Shades of Grey sits at C+. A D makes Joker 2 the equivalent of The Happening and Jeepers Creepers. An F rating is very rare, with the last one earned by the horror flop The Turning in 2020, but that level of film also includes the 2020 The Grudge remake and the bizarre Jennifer Lawrence film mother!, so coming in above those is like saying you beat the White Sox.
Damage To DC
Audience reception to Joker 2 means there will be no Joker 3, and this is another black eye for DC, as even The Eternals earned more and was rated better by those who paid to see it. Despite being an Elseworlds film with no connection to James Gunn’s upcoming DC universe, your average moviegoer doesn’t pay attention to that level of detail, and such a historic failure may carry over to hurt Superman. Whoever would have guessed that of Batman’s villains, Joker would be a failure as a standalone, while The Penguin is featured in the best show on television today?
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