• Join Puck

    Directly Supporting Authors

    A new economic model in which writers are also partners in the business.

    Personalized Subscriptions

    Customize your settings to receive the newsletters you want from the authors you follow.

    Stay in the Know

    Connect directly with Puck talent through email and exclusive events.

  • What is puck? Newsletters Authors Podcasts Events Gift Puck Careers

The Joker’s Sequelitis

At one point, a big-budget follow-up movie that grossed less than the original was an anomaly. But with The Marvels and now Joker: Folie à Deux, it’s becoming a trend.

Joker: Folie à Deux
The Joker sequel left everyone who might have cared out in the cold—Joker fans, Lady Gaga acolytes, musical theater nerds, etcetera. Photo: Niko Tavernise/Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Scott Mendelson
October 8, 2024

Joker: Folie à Deux, Todd Phillips’ follow-up to his $335 million domestic and $1.1 billion worldwide grossing predecessor, opened to just $38 million in North America and $115 million globally. We can expect a domestic total of around $75 million and a global haul below $300 million. That would be down 77 percent in North America and at least 72 percent globally. The R-rated musical melodrama, which primarily takes place in an asylum wing and a courthouse, somehow cost a reported $190 million. (Its predecessor cost $63 million.) All of those numbers are very bad for Warner Bros.