This past weekend, the highly anticipated film, “Joker: Folie à Deux” starring Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix, hit theaters. Unfortunately, the film had an underwhelming opening weekend at the box office, bringing in $40 million.
$40 million seems like a great debut, but compared to the $100 million debut of its predecessor movie “Joker” in 2019, this is clearly an upset for Warner Bros Studio. To put this into perspective, the film cost nearly five times its $40 million earnings to create.
The two high profile names leading the film — Gaga and Phoenix — were expected to bring in crowds, especially since the popstar-turned-actress has a large fan base. But it seems they didn’t come out in the numbers that they bring to her concerts, or even to her 2018 film with Bradley Cooper, “A Star is Born.”
It’s hard to say if the box office numbers were as low as they are because of poor advertisement, or if word caught on that the film was a tad lackluster.
While Gaga and Phoenix have amazing on-screen chemistry, and both acted their butts off, it didn’t make up for the slow plot that made the film feel four hours long. Some scenes were comical — others were just flat out awkward. The timing and rhythm didn’t seem to click for most scenes in the movie. Gaga was unsurprisingly too much of a star and overshadowed everyone in any musical number she was a part of.
The soundtrack album, starring Gaga, didn’t meet people’s expectations despite coming out a week prior to the film’s release to boost the hype. The album “Harlequin” debuted at No. 20 on the Billboard 200 Albums all-genre chart.
It’s odd that the soundtrack did as poorly as it did, or that it didn’t see a boost after the film came out, given that what drives the movie forward and makes it bearable is the music. As a listener, the songs sound better after experiencing them in the film.
It’ll be interesting to see if the film garners any excitement over the coming weeks, or if it’ll gain more popularity. While it wasn’t a complete miss, there were pieces missing that led to an incomplete film for fans of the clown prince of crime.
Josh Pawlik is an assistant arts editor and can be reached at josh.pawlik@ubspectrum.com
Josh Pawlik is an assistant arts editor for The Spectrum. His hobbies include playing guitar, working out and reading. He can be found on Instagram @joshpawlik
Photo: Ryan Hagen | UB Athletics
