2024 saw numerous blockbuster films raking in huge sums at the box office, yet there were also several significant flops. According to Deadline, they’ve analyzed the numbers and identified the movies from the previous year that bombed at the box office. Interestingly, some of these underperformers were sci-fi or comic book adaptations that simply didn’t resonate with viewers. Among them, the biggest flop was none other than Joker: Folie a Deux, which cost Warner Bros. over $144 million. Despite the first film grossing over a billion dollars in 2019, this sequel was flat-out rejected by audiences.
Initially, the first “Joker” movie cost approximately $65 million to produce, which is relatively low compared to typical comic book movie budgets. Despite this, it grossed over a billion dollars worldwide and earned Joaquin Phoenix an Oscar for his portrayal of the main character. At first, another Joker film didn’t seem necessary from a narrative standpoint. However, when a movie generates that much revenue, a sequel becomes inevitable. So, what went awry in director Todd Phillips’s follow-up “Joker” film, especially since it featured pop sensation Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn? This is particularly puzzling given these additional advantages.
Initially, the budget for the sequel soared from $65 million to an astounding $200 million. Unlike the first part that sent the Joker and Harley into outer space, this sequel was set within courtrooms and prisons, with most of it focusing on legal hearings regarding the events of the previous movie. Even if it had been successful, it would have been challenging to turn a profit given these circumstances. To make matters worse, the film’s musical elements didn’t appeal to the male audience who were key contributors to the first film’s success. Lastly, the twist at the end – Arthur Fleck isn’t the genuine Joker and he is killed by another inmate – further contributed to its notorious failure.
The movie received a D rating from CinemaScore and was generally panned by critics. This isn’t an unusual occurrence; even the original “The Exorcist” became a worldwide box office sensation with numerous Oscar nominations, but its sequel, “The Heretic,” was a major failure. Sometimes, a hugely successful film is like catching lightning in a bottle and can’t be easily reproduced. This seems to have been the case for the second Joker movie as well. However, a new reigning villain will probably appear on the big screen at some point. Warner Bros may decide to wait a while before introducing another version, perhaps until the memory of this recent one fades away.
2025 saw several other highly-anticipated movies, three of which were geek favorites (one particularly impressive), alongside a self-financed project from an esteemed filmmaker. Among these, “Mad Max: Fury Road” reportedly incurred a loss of $119.6 million; “Borderlands” lost $80 million; Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” saw a loss of $75.5 million (ouch); and “Kraven” is said to have cost $71 million.
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2025-05-03 01:02