Warning! The Following Contains SPOILERS for Joker: Folie á Deux.
Director Todd Phillips killed the Joker (Joaquin Phoenix), and it’s going to cost him and the studio dearly. Would a simple test screening have helped Phillips and Warner Bros. laugh all the way to the bank instead? Well, presenting Joker: Folie á Deux to an audience ahead of its world premiere at the 81st Venice Film Festival certainly couldn’t have hurt because the new DC movie is being received horribly by both critics and fans alike — not to mention its poor box office performance. And in a new report posted to the digital media company Puck’s website, by Matt Belloni, it’s revealed that Warner Bros. allegedly “declined to test screen” Joker 2. Belloni writes (per Screen Rant):
“Despite the risky musical element and dry courtroom sequences, I’m told Warners declined to test screen Folie à Deux to get audience feedback before Phillips locked the film. That’s quite a tightrope to walk on the studio’s most expensive movie of the year.”
Regardless of the 12-minute standing ovation Folie á Deux received at this year’s Venice Film Festival, it’s looking more and more like Phillips’ film is going to have the hardest time trying to make back its colossal $200 million budget. After Joker 2’s special fan screenings on Monday, Thursday night’s previews and Friday’s opening-day numbers, the Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga-led sequel has made only $20 million domestically (per The Numbers). Oh yes, a test screening might have allowed Phillips the opportunity to course-correct before fans and critics began tearing the film to shreds with their atrocious reviews and reactions.
Joker: Folie á Deux Is Crucified by Fans & Critics Alike
Joker: Folie á Deux’s long-range box office forecast actually predicted that the highly anticipated follow-up to 2019’s Joker was on pace to make somewhere between $115 million and $145 million (per Boxoffice Pro). Now, though, after Joker 2’s disappointing debut on Friday, October 4, the DC sequel will be lucky if it’s just able to crack the $50-million mark domestically over its opening weekend. Perhaps, if Warner Bros. and Todd Phillips had insisted on a test screening or two, all of this hatred for Folie á Deux could have been avoided.
Unfortunately, there’s more at play here than just killing off the Joker (Phoenix) behind the film’s “D” CinemaScore, which measures how an audience grades the film after having just seen it in theaters. Phillips’ treatment of Harley Quinn (Gaga), who ultimately breaks Joker, aka Arthur Fleck’s heart, is certain to enrage loyal followers of the beloved character. Plus, there’s that disturbing and completely unnecessary allusion to Heath Ledger’s Joker at the end, which completely undoes the brilliance of Joker (2019), if what that scene is insinuating is actually true. Did Phillips just give DC fans the middle finger and say, “Arthur Fleck IS NOT the real Joker?!”
Joker: Folie á Deux’s tragic Rotten Tomatoes scores rightly reflect the disapproval of Phillips’ work in the eyes of audiences and critics, which turns out to be anything but a love letter to the fans. At the time of this writing, the film only registers 33% against 243 reviews on the Tomatometer. And the Popcornmeter, formerly the RT audience score, sits at an even worse 32% with 1,000+ verified ratings.
It’s sad to say, but Phillips did to his own sequel what the “real” Joker did to Jason Todd in the pages the classic Batman tale: A Death in the Family. And there was absolutely no reason for the famed director to kill Arthur Fleck – none! It’s hard to imagine worse DC films than Batman & Robin and Catwoman, but Folie á Deux is just too objectionable to ignore.
Joker: Folie á Deux
is now playing in theaters.