Based on the DC comics, the sequel to the 2019 Joker movie, Joker: Folie à Deux was a huge flop. The sequel follows a failed comedian, Arthur Fleck who is struggling with his true identity, as he stumbles across true love while in Arkham State Hospital. While awaiting trial of murder of five people, Fleck discovers his musical passion that was always in him. The film was released in late 2024 and hit $200 million at the box office, but is still far from profitable with its $200 million budget. The film has received a 31% on Rotten Tomatoes and 5.2 out of 10 on IMDb. The audience rating didn’t even hit 3 stars as it received 1.8 stars out of 5.
The Joker movie released in 2019 was good and had 11 Oscar nominations. The Joker was fantastically portrayed by actor Joaquin Phoenix so fans were excited to see in return in the sequel. They were also excited to see singer and actress Lady Gaga in the new sequel playing Lee Quinzel. Both actors did a good job in Joker: Folie à Deux, but the movie overall was disappointing.
Having the new film be a musical was very surprising to most viewers because Joker is a Thriller based on the original DC comics. The director Todd Philips spoke on how it wasn’t a big leap to turn this into a musical because of the first film.
“In the first movie, one thing (Phoenix and I) spoke about a lot was that even though Arthur is left-footed and out of step with the world, to us, there was a romance in him, and there was music inside of Arthur in the first film. That comes out in the first movie where he’s dancing in the bathroom, or he’s coming down the stairs in the Bronx. So we thought, if we do another one and if he finally for the first time finds love in his life, maybe that music inside of him comes out,” said Philips.
Box office analysts believe that this was a poor decision by the director, since the musical themes alienated the DC fan base by having song and dance numbers in the sequel.
The movie was a flop because of its repeating storyline and bad pacing. It felt boring to many viewers and the open ending was very annoying. It lacked originality, it copied films like Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy. The movie also focused too much on the Joker and not other aspects seen in the movie. There wasn’t much mention of the elite vs poor, or decay in society which were important ideas to the film.This film can be watched on the streaming service MAX. The film was very weak and lacked the original DC comic story. This led many viewers to discard the film and lead it to have poor reviews.
