‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Stands Side by Side With ‘Morbius’ After Disastrous Opening Day at the Box Office

We expected ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ and got ‘Morbius. ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ premiered this Friday to horrific critics and audience scores. The movie currently holds a 33% approval rate by critics and a 31% approval rate by audiences, making it completely rotten.

The movie also received a “D” CinemaScore, the lowest so far for a superhero movie, although calling ‘Joker 2’ a superhero movie or even a comic adaptation would be a pretty big stretch.

Initially, box office predictions for the movie did not look good at all. The projected domestic opening for the film has been revised down to $55 million to $60 million across 4,000 U.S. theaters, utilizing IMAX and PLF screens.

This was a decrease from the original forecast of over $70 million based on three-week tracking, according to Deadline. When the movie received a “D” CinemaScore, box office expectations were covered once again, but the movie did so much worse at least according to the numbers we have now.

The polarizing sequel brought in a modest $20 million on Friday, which includes $7 million from preview screenings according to The Hollywood Reporter. The numbers are slightly over ‘Morbius’ which grossed $17.3 million on its opening day, which included $5.7 million from preview screenings.

To compare ‘Joker 2’ with other notable bombs in the last few years, it’s worse than nearly all of them. ‘The Marvels,’ so far the lowest-grossing movie in MCU’s history earned $21.3 million on its first day (including $6.6 million from previews).

‘Madame Web’ had a six-day opening of $25.8 million, but is this really the movie we want to compare ‘Joker 2’ with? ‘The Flash’ released in 2023 similarly earned $24.1 million on its first day (including $9.7 million from previews).

The first movie earned $335.5 million in the United States and Canada and $743.5 million in other territories, totaling $1.079 billion worldwide. It ranks as the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2019 and the second-highest-grossing R-rated film of all time, being the first R-rated film to surpass the billion-dollar mark until ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ this year.

With its low budget and strong box office performance, ‘Joker’ is still the most profitable comic book film ever. ‘Joker 2’ production was three times as costly, the currently reported numbers being $200M, and it’s expected to earn 3 times less than the first movie during its opening weekend.

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