Joker 2 becomes infamous box office bomb as insiders brand it a “huge disaster”

Step down, Megalopolis, because Joker 2 is about to take the top spot as 2024’s most notorious box office bomb. In the eyes of insiders, it’s a “huge disaster.”

Until Deadpool & Wolverine, Joker was the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time. Its performance, critically and financially, was unprecedented; it made billions of dollars, won the Golden Lion, and took home multiple Oscars, including Best Actor for Joaquin Phoenix.

It would have been hard to turn down Joker 2. Todd Phillips and co. would have been offered a bucket-load of cash, but more importantly, it made sense. At the end of the first film, Arthur Fleck appeared to become the titular Joker – we needed to see what happens next.

As the old adage goes, be careful what you wish for. As our Joker: Folie à Deux review notes, it misses the mark, and after this period of backlash and shock, it’ll probably be forgotten.

Joker 2 box office

Joker 2 has made $114 million worldwide, coming after a $37m domestic opening weekend. It performed stronger internationally, with a haul of $77m.

However, that’s still a huge under-performance. To put it into context, in the US it opened behind The Flash ($55m), The Marvels ($46.1m), and Morbius ($39m), three superhero movies written off as some of the worst or biggest flops of 2023.

In 2019, Joker made almost $100 million in its opening weekend in North America, plus an extra $140 million worldwide. That is a massive step down, and the reason is obvious: the reviews have been increasingly negative, and word of mouth has been even worse.

“It is complete audience rejection,” one source close to the film told The Hollywood Reporter, while an unnamed producer said: “It is a collective failure, but it was right to make this movie.”

Warner Bros.

That’s the by-and-large sentiment: Warner Bros needed to make Joker 2, but how did it end up like this? “It’s a huge disaster, but what is the fallout? Who gets the blame?” another source asked.

It’s unclear how much it’ll make in its second week – but the forecast looks bleak. Take The Marvels, a major MCU release with a B CinemaScore… which dropped 78% to just $10 million in its second weekend.

There’s a possibility that Joker 2 makes less than $10 million in the US this coming weekend, but we’ll update this space with fresh figures.

For more coverage, read why this is the worst scene in Joker 2, whether or not there’ll be a Joker 3, and our list of the best superhero movies of all time.