If you’ve paid attention to the weekend box office you may have noticed that Joker: Folie a Deux hasn’t done well. The first week numbers were far below what people expected grossing under $40 million opening weekend. According to Box Office Mojo, that's far below the $90 million from the first movie made on its opening weekend.
The bad press surrounding the film could have worked in its favor. Sometimes people will see poor reviews and think it can’t be as bad as reported. That wasn’t the case for Joker: Folie a Deux. The movie dropped over 80% from the first weekend. What does that mean? Joker 2 isn't worth seeing in theaters.
Don’t let this writer discourage you from seeing the movie especially since he hasn’t seen it himself. However, the drop from just under $40 million to $7 million says that even word of mouth from people who enjoyed it isn’t enough to get people to theaters. It also doesn’t help that even the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is worse than the critics.
In the case of movies like The Marvels and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice the audience liked a movie more than the critics. In the interest of fairness, the opposite can be said for Captain Marvel (even though it was massively review-bombed). With Joker 2, it looks like almost nobody enjoyed this. It's more than enough of a reason to wait for this to stream for free. It may not be worth paying for the rental.
The phrase, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me” comes to mind. I’ve rented. purchased, and went to the theaters to see movies hoping everyone was wrong. For example, I own a digital copy of Morbius and Dark Phoenix and saw 2015's Fantastic Four (or Fan4stic) in theaters. I was warned that they weren’t good but I thought they couldn’t be that bad. Well, they were. Nevertheless, both have a higher rating than Joker 2.
Lastly, this writer can’t wait to watch Joker: Folie a Deux. As much as I’d like to say that I won’t rent or buy the movie, I know I will. Call it curiosity or a glutton for punishment. Sometimes seeing how awful something is worth the price you'll pay. It didn’t help either that The Pitch Meeting made the movie seem too ridiculous not to watch even with the spoilers. There's still disbelief that Joker 2 is better than what everyone is saying.
When I do watch Joker 2, you’ll get a full and honest review on Caped Crusades and the Bam Smack Pow podcast.
Did you see Joker: Folie a Deux? Was it as bad as people said? We want to hear from you. You can email us at entertainment@fansided.com.