JOKER: FOLIE Á DEUX Bombs, and Nobody Should Be Surprised

Published: October 8, 2024

JOKER: FOLIE Á DEUX Bombs, and Nobody Should Be Surprised

By Movieguide® Contributor

The new JOKER movie, titled JOKER: FOLIE Á DEUX, bombed at the box office, and that shouldn’t surprise anyone.

FOLIE Á DEUX, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, follows “Arthur Fleck, aka The Joker, to his murder trial, where his lawyer uses an insanity defense.”

Movieguide®’s synopsis continues, “Meanwhile, Arthur falls in love with Lee, a blonde inmate at Arkham Asylum. Lee is an arsonist who participates in a musical therapy group that Arthur’s personal guard allows him to attend. The milieu of the class inspires them to sing to one another. Also, Arthur imagines performing fantasy numbers with Lee. Will their romance help Arthur to reform? Some major plot twists provide the answer.”

The sequel to 2019’s JOKER bombed at the box office, with a domestic opening of $37.8 million.

“Exit polls are equally grim as audiences express their unhappiness with the antihero-musical mashup, which did less than half of the business the first JOKER did in its launch, despite costing more than three times as much to make, or $190 million,” The Hollywood Reporter said.

“Overseas, JOKER 2 opened to $81.1 million, in line with expectations for a global debt of $121.1 million. While the overseas result provided some relief, it’s still notably behind the first JOKER,” the outlet added.

While The Hollywood Reporter calls FOLIE Á DEUX’s flop a “box office shocker,” Movieguide® and media-wise audiences aren’t surprised by the low take due to the movie’s excessive content. Movieguide®’s review reads:

JOKER: FOLIE Á DEUX is partly a musical. The songs, which include three famous pop music spirituals, are a high point. They even seem to help Arthur change for the better. However, the rest of the movie has a frequently dark mood full of chaos. The chaos ultimately overcomes any positive content or messages. Also, a shocking twist at the end is depressing. JOKER: FOLIE Á DEUX also has lots of strong, gratuitous foul language, a carnal love scene, and some extreme and disturbing violence. So, media-wise viewers will not find this JOKER so amusing.

The movie is dominated by a “Dark, seemingly pessimistic, mixed pagan worldview,” and its disturbing sequences of violence turn viewers away, as Movieguide®’s 2024 Report to the Entertainment Industry revealed.

Audiences do, however, appreciate family-friendly movies, as several films this year yet again prove.

Earlier this year, INSIDE OUT 2 hit “$1 billion at the global box office on its 19th day of release — a feat never before accomplished by any animated movie.”

It currently boasts a worldwide box office take of nearly $1.7 billion, making it 2024’s top movie so far.

Meanwhile, DESPICABLE ME 4 joined “five of its predecessors in having passed the $900 million milestone at the global box office,” per Collider, and is currently this year’s No. 3 movie.

As Movieguide® previously said, “family-friendly movies reflecting strong Christian, redemptive, moral, biblical, traditional, or conservative principles and values usually do significantly better at the box office in the United States and Canada than those movies that don’t have such strong content.”

If filmmakers want their movies to perform well at the box office, they should heed Movieguide®’s advice and focus on uplifting stories that steer clear of excessive content.