Folie à Deux soft-shoes its way to $7M in previews as fans and critics share divisive reviews of the musical sequel

Todd Phillips’s highly-anticipated musical Joker: Folie à Deux faucet dances its manner into theaters with $7M in Thursday previews.

Who’s prepared to chop a rug with Arthur Fleck and Lee Quinzel? Joker: Folie à Deux, Todd Phillips’s extremely anticipated sequel to his 2019 billion-dollar barnburner, Joker, is lastly tap-dancing for followers in theaters with a $7M absorb Thursday preview screenings. On Thursday, showings started at 3 p.m., with analysts saying the movie may earn $50M over the weekend. Phillips’s divisive sequel value a reported $190M+, so WB hopes the experimental DC movie has legs.

Whereas wanting on the numbers, we see that Joker: Folie à Deux previews are down 47% from the unique, which garnered $13.3M in early screenings and earned $96.2M throughout its weekend debut.

Todd Phillips not too long ago stated he’s not making DC films, which could possibly be within the filmmaker’s greatest curiosity. Joker fanboys have been nervous concerning the sequel’s musical parts for months, and preliminary reactions to the movie from many individuals who liked the primary one are grim. PostTrak revealed a 1/2 star rating with a 40% constructive ranking, just like Francis Ford Coppola’s self-funded disasterpiece Megalopolis (45%). In the meantime, 24% of viewers say they’ll advocate Joker: Folie à Deux to their associates. The film performs poorly on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 37% Critic Rating, nose-diving from an preliminary 62% Contemporary posting.

Whereas poking round on social media, I’ve seen some scathing fan critiques for Joker: Folie à Deux, with many saying the sequel is a disappointing “courtroom drama” that doesn’t supply any of the messaging or cerebral thrills of the unique. Nonetheless, outliers say some persons are being too harsh on the movie and “don’t get it.” WB ought to hope audiences determine to indicate up this weekend to determine for themselves concerning the movie’s high quality as an alternative of taking on-line outrage as gospel.

JoBlo’s Editor-in-Chief, Chris Bumbray, reviewed Joker: Folie à Deux, saying it “seems like an anticlimax,” however suspects one thing extra masterful awaits after a number of viewings. You’ll be able to learn Chris’s full evaluate right here.

Will you see Joker: Folie à Deux this weekend? Is the adverse word-of-mouth killing tarnishing your pleasure? Tell us when you plan to see the film whatever the on-line noise within the feedback beneath.

Concerning the Writer

Born and raised in New York, then immigrated to Canada, Steve Seigh has been a JoBlo.com editor, columnist, and critic since 2012. He began with Ink & Pixel, a column celebrating the magic and evolution of animation, earlier than launching the companion YouTube collection Animation Motion pictures Revisited. He is additionally the host of the Speaking Comics Podcast, a personality-driven audio present specializing in comedian books, movie, music, and extra. You may not often catch him with out headphones on his head and pancakes on his breath.