re: $200 Million ‘Joker’ Sequel Is a Box Office Bust - Update in OP, lower than expected $37M

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With a production budget in the $200 million range

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Why???

How the hell do these decision makers get their jobs?

Never trust these numbers. Hollywood studios are good at fudging numbers for tax breaks. But this a huge bust for WBD. I'm sure they assumed this movie would be a big money maker for them.

Anecdotal, but I have an employee that's a HUGE DC fan. He sees every DC movie opening night, and loves them all. I asked him this morning if he liked it, assuming he saw it over the weekend. He didn't, and doesn't plan to. Yikes.

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Is there no spoilers thread. I wanted to see posters' reviews of the movie lol.

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Arthur is on trial for his murders. Lee Quinn or whatever they named her is in Arkham Hospital/Jail because she lit her parents house on fire. Come to find out that was lie and she actually checked herself in because she's obsessed with Joker (not Arthur) and wanted to be with Joker. She more or less lights the match to get Arthur to turn back into Joker only for Arthur to realize he doesn't have it in him to be Joker and accepts that he's a broken, mentally ill person (and not Joker). Lee leaves him because she wants Joker not Arthur, and at the end Arthur is stabbed and killed in prison by someone influenced by Arthur's message of being the Joker, and that person presumably becomes the real "Joker" at the end of the film based on his laugh, and taking the blade to his mouth to cut smiles (think Heath Ledger Joker)

The story was shite, the music was shite, and I actually got bored. 4/10

Movie was stupid and completely ruined whatever the first movie was building toward.

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Lee leaves him because she wants Joker not Arthur. After getting the Joker gang-raped out of him by Mad Eye Moody and two other guards, Arthur is stabbed and killed in prison by someone influenced by Arthur's message of being the Joker, and that person presumably becomes the real "Joker" at the end of the film based on his laugh, and taking the blade to his mouth to cut smiles (think Heath Ledger Joker)

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I’d also add that he fired his lawyer and represents himself in court. At this point, he introduces the finest Foghorn Leghorn impression I’ve seen since Jeff Daniels in A Man in Full.

So my best friend is one of those 'find out for himself' types...like he went to see that last Indiana Jones movie even though he heard how bad it was.....he has no desire to see Joker 2.

Umm, spoilers

Variety did a post-mortem today that makes it pretty clear that Todd Phillips was up his own arse the whole time and didn't care what fans/DC thought.

The whole thing is worth reading, but some highlights:

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Todd Phillips “wanted nothing to do with DC” during the making of the film, says one agent familiar with the director’s unique carve-out, which allowed him to bypass any oversight from the brand’s gatekeepers. Although Gunn has publicly supported the film on social media, Phillips has distanced himself from DC. As the animated title-card sequence unspooled inside the iconic Hollywood cinema in the opening minutes, it became apparent that Phillips had just given DC the middle finger. There was no DC Studios logo.

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The overarching question being asked is: Why spend $200 million to make — and nearly $100 million to market — a tentpole that ignores the DC fanbase? And “ignores” may be putting it mildly. As a Rolling Stone review of the film succinctly put it: “‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Has a Message for Fans: Go F-ck Yourselves.”

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Other battles of will between Phillips and Warners ensued. Phillips refused to test screen “Joker 2.” So its premiere in Venice marked the first time an audience saw it. The critics rejected it, and the film tallied a disastrous 33% score on Rotten Tomatoes well before earning a dismal “D” CinemaScore. To put that grade into context, the much reviled “Madame Web” landed a “C+” earlier this year. (A Warners spokesperson says, “Given the film contains spoilers, the studio did not want to unnecessarily divulge plot points too early to test audiences, but rather, allow moviegoers to discover the film in their own time.”)

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The movie began production in December 2022, two months after Gunn and Safran took control of DC, and many expected the duo to provide notes and feedback on the R-rated musical, especially given the capital outlay involved. But Phillips balked and would only liaise with De Luca and Abdy. And he has done little to dispel the appearance of friction, even though Gunn and Safran were on hand for the first director’s cut screening for the studio. When asked by a Collider reporter if the production process changed when the pair succeeded DC head Walter Hamada or if they had any input, Phillips replied, “With all due respect to them, this is kind of a Warner Bros. movie.”

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“No one could get through to Todd,” says one source directly involved with the film. “And the one thing about genre stuff: If you don’t listen and pay attention to what the fan expectations are, you’re going to fail.”

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Full story.