Puck’s Matt Belloni is reporting that ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ — which prior to Venice was tracking at around $150M — is now eyeing a $68M opening, slightly down from last week’s $70M projection.
How low can this one go? Some believe it could very well go down to $50M by the end of the month. The first ‘Joker’ opened to $96M in 2019, and that was against a budget of $55M. ‘Folie à Deux’ is reported to have cost over $200M. To make matters worse, the film’s presales are currently well behind those of “The Marvels” and “The Flash.”
It goes without saying that premiering ‘Folie à Deux’ at Venice was a major mistake on the part of Warners, that’s where the toxic buzz started. They must be thankful that NYFF canceled its originally intended North American premiere of the film, which was made due to the recent Joaquin Phoenix controversy.
The film is three weeks away from release, and the buzz has definitely been dwindling. Two weeks ago, ‘Folie a Deux’ premiered at Venice where it got panned by critics. It surely doesn’t help that it’s an R-rated musical, which was already a tough sell to begin with, especially for fans of the grittier 2019 original, and that’s despite Warner Bros’ trying hard to hide the musical components in their marketing.