Joker: Folie À Deux wins the weekend box office, but sure isn't smiling

There’s nothing to sing about for the Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix-led disaster at the box office either. Sure, the film technically won the weekend, with $40 million to The Wild Robot‘s $19 million. But this is still an unmitigated low note for Warner Bros., who spent $190 million to make the thing—more than three times as much as the original Joker, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film was projected to open at $50 million or $60 million, the trade reports, which was already a downgrade from last month’s original projection of $70 million. Deadline notes that this is one of the lowest sequel openings for a comic book film ever—even worse than notorious MCU bomb The Marvels—meaning superhero fatigue may have turned into full-on narcolepsy.  

There is some good news for Folie À Deux, however. Deadline reports that it’s not the lowest opening for a DC movie ever. That honor goes to the Josh Brolin epic Jonah Hex, which no one saw (it opened at a mere $5.3 million). It also scored a big win for movie musicals; its opening weekend netted more than the entire domestic gross of Cats ($27.1 million) in 2019. Way to go, Joker!

The rest of the top 10, via Box Office Mojo, is below:

1. Joker: Folie à Deux, $40 million
2. The Wild Robot, $18.7 million
3. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, $10.3 million
4. Transformers One, $5.4 million
5. Speak No Evil, $2.8 million
6. Sam and Colby: The Legends of the Paranormal, $1.8 million
7. White Bird, $1.5 million
8. Deadpool & Wolverine, $1.5 million
9. The Substance, $1.3 million
10. Megalopolis, $1 million