As a result of the DC Extended Universe ending last year with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and the new DC Universe’s Chapter One slate not kicking off the film side of things until Superman: Legacy’s 2025 release, none of 2024’s upcoming DC movies will take place in a shared continuity. Instead, the one piece of DC theatrical entertainment lined up on the 2024 movies schedule is Joker 2, officially titled Joker: Folie à Deux, which sees Joaquin Phoenix reprising Arthur Fleck and Lady Gaga joining him as Harley Quinn. Word’s come in that the sequel’s budget has shockingly risen to around $200 million, a massive increase from its predecessor.
For those unaware, Joker cost just $60 million to make, though the movie went on to collect over $1 billion at the box office, becoming the first R-rated movie to hit that milestone. Now Joker 2 has gone through more than triple that amount, and while we learned in 2022 that the sequel was getting a much bigger budget, this is roughly $50 million than what had previously been reported. So why is so much additional money being spent?
Variety mentioned that Joaquin Phoenix received $20 million to reprise his version of the Clown Prince of Crime, and Lady Gaga has scored a payday in the $12 million range, but as you can tell doing the simple addition, those paychecks don’t even account for 1/5 of the budget. Instead, the outlet noted that “musicals are tricky,” noting that last year’s The Color Purple, a fellow Warner Bros. Picture release, lost $40 million. So while not outright stated, it sounds like Joker 2 being a muscle production (although not a fully-fledged one, according to the cinematographer) is accounting for for the majority of the costs, or at least a significant chunk of them.
To compare to 2023’s DC movies, The Flash reportedly cost around $200-$225 million to make and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom around $205-$25 million, whereas Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Blue Beetle reportedly only cost around $110-$125 million and $104-$125 million to put together, respectively. All those movies, however, relied on CGI and other visual effects, which is the norm when it comes superhero genre offerings. Joker 2, on the other hand, is leaning into the production design, costumes and other elements necessary to make a musical. Still, to reach $200 million is astounding, but if the sequel ends up commercially performing along the same lines as Joker, the studio won’t need to worry about it not making a profit.
Joker 2 will depict the love story between its title character and Harley Quinn, a.k.a Dr. Harleen Quinzel, who, like her comic book counterpart, starts out as an Arkham psychiatrist who’s assigned to treat Arthur, but eventually falls in love with him. Beyond that, no plot details have been shared, but the Joker 2 cast also includes Zazie Beetz reprising Sophie Dimond, as well as Brendan Gleeson and Catherine Keener, among others, in undisclosed roles. As with the first movie, Todd Phillips both directed and wrote the script with Scott Silver.
Joker: Folie à Deux opens in theaters on October 4, and Joker can be streamed with a Max subscription alongside the other DC movies in order. Keep visiting CinemaBlend for more updates on how the sequel is coming along.
