The toxic word of mouth surrounding Joker: Folie à Deux has poisoned the film’s box office prospects. The costly musical sequel to 2019’s blockbuster hit spiraled out of control after a soft opening day haul and is now estimated to have grossed under $40 million domestically in its first three days of release. This is around a third of what the first Joker made in its opening weekend in pre-pandemic 2019, and lower than the opening weekend hauls of some of the worst box office bombs in recent years. Directed by Todd Phillips, Joker: Folie à Deux features a returning Joaquin Phoenix in the titular role, alongside Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn.

The movie made just $40 million in its opening weekend, which is slightly higher than Morbius, but below The Marvels, and The Flash — three notorious recent comic book-based flops. However, the musical blockbuster A Star Is Born — also featuring Gaga — opened to $42 million domestically and eventually grossed over $400 million worldwide. By comparison, the first Joker made nearly $100 million in its opening weekend — a number that Joker: Folie à Deux may struggle to hit in its run. Having opened to mixed reviews and a surprise Golden Lion win at the Venice Film Festival, the first Joker went on to gross $335 million domestically and over $1 billion worldwide. It also won Phoenix a Best Actor Oscar and did it all against a reported budget of around $70 million.

Joker: Folie à Deux reportedly cost nearly $200 million to produce, and like its predecessor, played in competition at Venice as well. But reviews have been far more negative this time around, with the movie currently holding a “rotten” 33% critic score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. It’s the audience, however, that has truly turned on the movie; they awarded it a terrible 31% rating on RT and an unprecedented D CinemaScore. This is the worst-ever CinemaScore for a comic book property, and lower than the grades that even divisive recent films such as Megalopolis and Babylon scored on the platform. Warner Bros. has already had a big-budget bomb this year in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and it would seem like Joker: Folie à Deux is headed for similar results.

‘The Wild Robot’ and ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ Continue to Soar

Slipping to second place after topping the box office in its opening weekend, DreamWorks’ The Wild Robot grossed just under $20 million in its sophomore frame. The universally acclaimed animated film is about to pass the $65 million mark domestically. Produced on a reported budget of $80 million, The Wild Robot’s near-perfect 98% critic score on RT is coming into play, especially with Joker: Folie à Deux failing to attract crowds. At number three, W.B.’s holdover hit Beetlejuice Beetlejuice added a little more than $10 million in its fifth weekend, as it passed the $265 million milestone domestically.

The fourth spot went to Paramount’s Transformers One, which still hasn’t cracked the $50 million mark after two full weeks of release. Like The Wild Robot, the film opened to excellent reviews but simply wasn’t able to pull in the crowds. Transformers One grossed just over $5 million this weekend; expect it to find an audience when it lands on digital streaming platforms. The top five was rounded out by Universal’s sneakily resilient horror film Speak No Evil. Although the remake hasn’t exactly set the box office on fire, it’s still pulling in crowds despite having been released on PVOD platforms. Speak No Evil has now generated over $32 million domestically, which is over twice its reported production budget.

Stay tuned to Collider for more updates, and grab your tickets for Joker: Folie à Deux below.

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