Box Office Report for the Week of October 6

We live in a society where the second Joker movie has completely petered out at the box office, with an opening similar to the numbers Morbius made in its first weekend. And we all know how that ended up. Joker: Folie à Deux initially tracked to make over $70M domestically, which would be a step down the first, but not as bad as one would think. However, he movie ended up making only $40M this weekend and will likely make even less come next week as negative word-of-mouth spreads further.

When the movie premiered at the Venice Film Festival, the reviews weren’t spectacular but on par with the first Joker. Some hailed it a masterpiece, while others lamented the sequel. Many thought the overall reception would fall in line with this. If you hated the first Joker, chances are this sequel won’t do much to you, while the ones who loved it the first go-around may also appreciate the sequel. After all, the 2019 film made over $1 billion at the worldwide box office, won the Golden Lion at Venice, was nominated for 11 Academy Awards (winning two), and became the highest R-rated movie of all time before Deadpool & Wolverine dethroned it this year.

That’s a lot of accolades for a movie that received such polarizing reviews. However, the reception completely shifted gears once more people began to see it, with early access IMAX previews on September 30 being the first nail in the coffin for its box office and critical performance. Before those showings, the Rotten Tomatoes score was at a respectable 65% (the first currently has 68%). Now, it is currently sitting at 33%, with the audience score at 30%.

It also received a D CinemaScore, which is the lowest grade that any comic book film received in the history of the survey company (yes, lower than Madame Web and Morbius). I didn’t like the movie very much, but a friend I talked to loved it after the IMAX early access screening. To be honest, I thought the reception would be similar to the first movie, but critics and audiences are equally rejecting it.The film is now bombing at the box office as a result. A stark sign of how much society has evolved over the past five years in the wake of Joker‘s release.

This is another hurdle for James Gunn, whose DC Universe begins in two months with the arrival of Creature Commandos. Taking over a studio plagued by a series of successive box office bombs isn’t as easy as you’d think. Will the audience be as gung-ho as they were when Man of Steel came out in 2013? Who knows, but the market of comic book movies isn’t as financially viable as they once were.

However, there seems to be a glimmer of hope for Gunn: the limited screenings of SUPER/MAN: The Christopher Reeve Story were so popular that the film is having a wide release next week! Some hope is encouraging before Superman flies up, up, and away in cinemas next year.

Here is the full list of the top ten films of the weekend:

1. Joker: Folie à Deux (Warner Bros): $40M – 4,102 theatres
2. The Wild Robot (Universal): $18.7M (-48%) – 3,997 theatres
3. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Warner Bros): $10.3M (-36%) – 3,576 theatres
4. Transformers One (Paramount): $5.4M (-42%) – 3,106 theatres
5. Speak No Evil (Universal): $2.8M (-34%) – 2,279 theatres
6. Sam and Colby: The Legends of the Paranormal (Independent): $1.8M – 295 theatres
7. White Bird (Lionsgate): $1.53M – 1,018 theatres
8. Deadpool & Wolverine (Disney): $1.52M (-45%) – 1,605 theatres
9. The Substance (MUBI): $1.3M (-35%) – 686 theatres
10. Megalopolis (Lionsgate): $1.0M (-74%) – 1,854 theatres

Source: Comscore