With so many distinct stories being told involving DC Comics heroes and villains, one might assume that — for a grinning, face-painted example — the fate of Todd Phillips’ standalone sequel Joker: Folie À Deux wouldn’t have any direct effects on James Gunn’s Superman and the launch of the first chapter of the DCU. Which might have been the case had it made all the money in the world, but with the quasi-musical severely underwhelming at the box office, Warner Bros. execs are reportedly getting antsy.
Despite the ever-decreasing amount of goodwill and fanfare aimed at the Joker sequel and stars Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, hopes were still kept marginally high that the offbeat DC villain tale would defy the odds and crush its theatrical competition on the way to becoming another billion-dollar success story. Instead, the demented drama's debut weekend topped out below $38 million domestically, raising questions about how other upcoming DC movies may fare.
Even with a global box office intake that matches up with expectations, Joker: Folie À Deux's dramatically low weekend returns are apparently being viewed as the moviegoing fandom turning up its nose at Arthur Fleck and Lee Quinzel. According to one insider, per THR:
It is complete audience rejection.
I can't imagine anyone at Warner Bros. expected its Joker follow-up, which allegedly wasn't part of any initial test screenings, to fall harder out of the gate than DC's non-blockbuster releases The Flash, Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Blue Beetle, not to mention also doing worse than the MCU's The Marvels and Sony's punchline factory Morbius. And yet it did, and unless the movie suddenly finds a miraculous growth in grassroots support, its weekend earnings will only dwindle from here on out.
Despite seeming to purposefully distance himself and the DCU from Todd Phillips' Joker films as much as possible, James Gunn's hot seat has become all the more searing after a string of DC box office blows. (Let's not forget the disappointing returns from Black Adam and the long-delayed Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.) And for all its financial woes, Joker: Folie à Deux also suffers from fan backlash over the devisive ending.
So while Gunn didn't appear to be under oodles of outward pressure while filming his upcoming Man of Steel adventure with David Corenswet, an industry insider said:
This puts more pressure on Superman than ever.
At this point, the hype and interest could not be more widespread for Gunn's Superman, the animated Creature Commandos series and other upcoming DC TV series, the rumored villain-fronted feature with Bane and Deathstroke, The Brave and the Bold, and the rest of the planned slate. As such, it almost seems silly to think that he and his partner in fictional crimefighting, Peter Safran, are actually nervous about the Joker sequel potentially having a negative impact on anything they do.
Granted, I don't think anyone would have predicted just how much of downfall Joker: Folie à Deux would suffer back when Joaquin Phoenix won the flipping Oscar for his first outing as Arthur. But it's not like any of the MCU's ups and downs over the years had any major impact on James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy films. And it's not as if the studio can gut the budget on a film that's already been filmed, when we already know it's going to be advertised across the entire universe.
So for now, the joke is squarely on this DC Elseworlds tale, but we shall see if its disappointing box office ripples extend all the way out to Superman's eventual release amidst the 2025 movie schedule.
