The early October release seemed ideal for Joker 2, as there weren't any similar films coming to theaters until the release of Venom 3 later in the month (in the U.S., Transformers: Rise of the Beasts had already premiered earlier). This meant Folie à Deux would have had the chance to recover even if it started weakly at the box office. However, Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix's musical antihero film didn't just start weakly—it seems there's no way back. Analysts are predicting a 60-65% drop for the second weekend at best, but they aren't ruling out a 70-75% plunge, which means it’s very likely that another infamous clown, or even the previously released The Creator, could surpass it on the North American box office charts.
Joker 2 earned only $37.8 million domestically in its opening weekend, and while it grossed $121.1 million worldwide, this is a tragic result considering the $200 million production budget and the success of the first film in 2019. A 60-65% drop in the second weekend wouldn't be unusual for a blockbuster if it had a strong opening, but given its steep decline, it means only $13-15 million could be expected from ticket sales. Based on the film's negative critical and audience reception, the revenue could even fall below $10 million, in which case Terrifier 3—with a $2 million budget, just 1% of Joker 2's—could surpass it at the box office.
Analysts predict an opening weekend of around $10 to $13 million for Terrifier 3 in North America. While there were reports of walkouts at its screenings in the UK, it wasn’t because people thought it was outrageously bad like Joker 2, but simply because they couldn’t stomach the brutal violence. These walkouts, however, could actually benefit Damien Leone's film, as many people may now be curious to see if Terrifier 3 is truly as intense as it's being made out to be.
However, the upcoming weekend could be won by DreamWorks' latest animated film, The Wild Robot, which has exceeded expectations with a $35 million opening in its first two weeks and earned $18 million in its second weekend, putting it just behind Joker 2. The film has been very well received by both critics and audiences, so it can rely on word-of-mouth in contrast to Joker 2. Analysts now expect it to bring in around $12 to $13 million in North America.
Joker 2's underperformance will likely be a topic of discussion for a long time, as we’ve seen quite a few big comic book film flops in recent years, but this one can’t be attributed to the genre's fatigue. We discussed the reasons behind this in our article, but some believe that Phillips intentionally made a "bad movie" because he didn’t like how fans had idealized a murderous antihero based on the first film. Of course, it’s also possible that the writer-director — who originally didn’t even want to make a sequel — decided that if the studio was so insistent on a second installment, he’d do something like the Joker in The Dark Knight and set fire to all the money they threw at him.
