‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ scores record low audience score for comic book movie
Joker: Folie à Deux has had a tough opening weekend at the box office, and has registered the lowest CinemaScore audience score for any comic book film ever.
As noted by The Hollywood Reporter, it is the first Hollywood comic book movie adaptation to have earned a ‘D’ score from the market research firm CinemaScore, indicating that many audiences are not enamoured with the sequel.
The new movie is a sequel to 2019’s Joker and was released in cinemas on Friday (October 4), after receiving its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last month.
It catches up with Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck, aka the Joker, while he is a patient at a mental health facility after the events of the first film, where he falls in love with Lady Gaga’s Harleen ‘Lee’ Quinzel, aka Harley Quinn.
It drew an estimated domestic box office opening of $40million (£30.5million) on its opening weekend, which is roughly half of the equivalent take of its predecessor, and well short of its original projections of $70million three weeks ago. The Hollywood Reporter state that Warner Bros. are “stunned and sorely disappointed” by the results. The film had a budget of $190million (£145million).
Even critically maligned comic book films, such as The Marvels or The Flash, tend to score respectable CinemaScore marks, with both examples being given a ‘B’ grade. Folie à Deux also currently sits on a lowly 33% critics score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes – compared to Joker’s 68%.
Much has also been made of the film’s embrace of the musical genre, with director Todd Phillips‘s decision being hailed by Gaga as “a very big swing”, while she also praised the film’s “audacity and complexity”.
The star was so taken with the film’s musicality that she recorded a companion album named ‘Harlequin’, which was released on September 27. Nick Cave also makes an appearance on the film’s official soundtrack, performing a medley of ‘Slap That Bass’, ‘Get Happy’ and ‘What The World Needs Now Is Love’.
In a four-star review of Folie à Deux, NME wrote: “As with the original movie, the film looks gorgeous throughout, with cinematographer Lawrence Sher making strong use of colour and conjuring up some beautiful images – highlights include an overhead shot of some umbrellas (referencing Jacques Demy’s 1964 musical The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg) and a stunningly lit frame of Arthur lighting a cigarette in his prison cell that resembles a lovingly illustrated comic book panel.
“In short, Phillips and Silver have delivered the last thing anyone expected: a socially responsible Joker movie that finds an intriguing way to explore the consequences (both on and offscreen) of the first film. Joker fans shouldn’t cry too hard though – Warner Bros. have cleverly found a way to leave the door open a little for the franchise to continue, should the need arise.”
In August, Phillips suggested that Folie à Deux will be the final film in his Joker franchise: “It was fun to play in this sort of sandbox for two movies, but I think we’ve said what we wanted to say in this world.”
He also revealed that scenes from the film were “very often” re-written in Phoenix’s trailer at the last minute during the shooting of the film.
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Max Pilley
NME
