The highly anticipated sequel “Joker: Folie a Deux” underperformed at the North American box office during its debut weekend.
Driven by weak reviews from critics, the new “Joker” film earned only $40 million U.S. in ticket sales across the U.S. and Canada during its opening weekend.
The first standalone “Joker” film, released in 2019, earned $96.2 million U.S. during its debut weekend.
Box office analysts had forecast that the poorly reviewed movie would earn around $70 million U.S. in box office ticket receipts.
The first “Joker” movie went on to earn $1.07 billion U.S. at the global box office on a modest budget of $65 million U.S.
In contrast, the sequel cost a reported $200 million U.S. to produce, not including costs to market the film. Analysts say it may now be difficult for the movie to breakeven.
Critics say the decision to turn the sequel into a musical courtroom drama backfired, with one critic writing in The Ringer that “…the results are so bad, they’re actually fascinating.”
“Joker: Folie a Deux” currently has a 33% score on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes based on 258 critics reviews, and a 31% audience score.
Rounding out the top five movies at the weekend box office were “The Wild Robot,” “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” “Transformers One,” and “Speak No Evil.”
The Beetlejuice sequel has now earned more than $400 million U.S. worldwide.
