‘Joker: Folie À Deux’ Opening Weaker Than Expected At Weekend Box Office

Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga’s Joker: Folie à Deux is projected to make about half of what the original Joker did in its opening weekend in theaters.

Joker: Folie à Deux, of course, is the sequel to the 2019 blockbuster, which made more than $1 billion in theaters worldwide—the first R-rated film ever to cross that benchmark.

Set two years after the events of the first film, Joker: Folie à Deux finds Arthur Fleck/Joker (Phoenix) in Gotham’s Arkham Asylum awaiting his trial for the murders of Murray Franklin (Robert De Niro) and four others. While in Arkham, Arthur meets and falls in love with Lee Quinzel/Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga) and they plot an escape together.

With Lady Gaga involved, director Todd Phillips put the pop superstar’s singing talents to use and turned the Joker sequel into a crime drama/jukebox musical.

Audiences, however, don’t appear to be in tune with Phillips’ vision. Deadline projects that the Warner Bros. film will earn “$47 million or less” in its opening weekend in 4,102 theaters. By comparison, 2019’s Joker, per The Numbers, earned $96.2 million in its opening Friday to Sunday frame in 4,374 venues.

Ealier in the week, Deadline projected the film to open in the $55 millon to $60 million range domestically, while Variety projected it would earn anywhere between $50 million to $65 million.

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The biggest gap between Joker and Joker: Folie à Deux, though, is in the film’s production budgets. Variety reported that Joker was made for $65 million before prints and advertising costs, while Joker: Folie à Deux cost $200 million before P&A (Deadline pegged the sequel's production cost at $190 million-plus).

Adding insult to the Joker sequel’s box office injury is the audience reaction to the film. Per Deadline, Joker: Folie à Deux earned a D+ grade from exit polling service CinemaScore, while the original Joker had a B+ CinemaScore grade.

If there’s any saving grace, for the R-rated Joker: Folie à Deux, a $47 million opening is more than enough to secure the No. 1 spot at the weekend box office.

‘The Wild Robot’ Is Projected To Finish At No. 2

Deadline projects that last weekend’s No. 1 film—DreamWorks’ animated family adventure The Wild Robot—will earn $19.5 million in its second Friday-Sunday frame in 3,997 North American theaters.

If the projection holds it will boost the 10-day domestic tally for The Wild Robot—which is being distributed by Universal Pictures—to $64.7 million.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros.’ Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is projected by Deadline to finish at No. 3 at the weekend box office with $11.4 million in ticket sales in 3,576 theaters. If the projection holds, it will boost the film’s tally to $266.5 million domestically.

The trade publication also projects Paramount’s animated adventure Transformers One will make $5.5 million in 3,106 venues, which would bring its North American box office take to $47.4 million by Sunday.

Deadline also projects that Universal’s horror thriller Speak No Evil will finish at No. 5 at the weekend box office with $3 million in 2,274 theaters domestically. If the estimated tally holds, it will up Speak No Evil’s running total to $32.7 million domestically.

Note: This report will be updated throughout the weekend with the most current domestic and international box office information available. The final numbers for this weekend’s box office will be released on Monday.