Folie à Deux' Eyes opens to $140 million worldwide box office

Todd Phillips' musical sequel Joker: Folie à Deux opens this week and is currently not expected to replicate the deal of the 2019 Warner Bros. film jokerwhich ultimately became the second highest-grossing R-rated film of all time with $1.07 billion, received 11 Oscar nominations and won two, including Best Actor for Joaquin Phoenix.

As for the sequel, it's looking better so far at $140 million worldwide than domestic, with a now lower projected $55-60 million in 4,000 U.S. theaters with all the tricks of Imax and PLF screens. The original domestic forecast was over $70 million when it reached its three-week run.

The first joker exceeded its domestic forecast of $80 million with its highest opening ever of $96.2 million and exceeded its global forecast of $155 million with $248.2 million (2019 figures unadjusted for inflation and currency fluctuations).

Still, with a net production cost of over $190 million Joker: Folie à DeuxThe expected business at this point is not bad for the exhibition and not necessarily bad for the film itself. Who doesn't want a film that grosses $55 million and $140 million at the October box office? Does anyone not want that? Why so serious, industry? Because they have business expectations for the continuation of the Dark Knight franchise and many have to remember that it is a continuation of an R-rated series Taxi driver-like social commentary starring a DC villain that happens to be well received and perform above average.

The question is whether fans will be okay with a Gaga-Phoenix musical duet that's almost as dark in tone as the first film. Nobody expected the first one joker go wild in its opening; There was a fear at the time that this would be the case Dark Knight Rises Copycat shootings. All these worries dissipated when the film opened.

Similar to the first one jokerWarners premiered this sequel in Venice, but that didn't help in terms of reviews, which sit at 62% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes (versus 69% among critics for the first film). This hasn't helped pre-sales, which sources currently suggest an opening price of less than $55 million Joker 2 can arrive at its current forecast. The preview begins on Thursday at 3 p.m. in the US Joker 2 The first choice is older men, followed by younger men under 25 and then older women over 25.

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Gaga's only previous tentpole, the Oscar winner A star is bornopened to $42.9 million at the box office in October 2018. She seems to surpass this character Joker 2which would become their best opening film domestically.

Hoping to get her Little Monsters into theaters, Gaga released an album to accompany the film: harlequinlast Friday.

Joker 2 could also score the best opening for a non-Disney live musical, possibly before November 2018 Bohemian Rhapsodywhich opened at $51 million.

Joker: Folie à Deux launched Tuesday in its first offshore market, Korea, with a No. 1 start of $1.3 million. Remember that they benefit from a local holiday. Korea was also the weekend's leading opener jokerwhich was surprising at the time since it wasn't clear how the film's darker elements would play out there. This time it may just be the musical factor that makes the audience lean forward. And this week another holiday is coming up.

Overall, the rest of the offshore rollout begins in earnest on Wednesday in 14 markets, including major markets France and Italy. On Thursday, 45 will be added, with Germany, Australia, Brazil and Mexico among the majors. Spain and Great Britain come into play on Friday.

Internationally, expectations for this first wave are $80 to $85 million. The 2019 joker opened offshore for $139 million following the Venice Golden Lion winner's heat.

After this weekend, Japan will be on board on October 11th and China on October 16th. As we have already noted, the first joker was not released in China.

Now DreamWorks Animation and Universal The wild robot It looks like it will be nearing $20 million in its second weekend, down 45%, after outperforming with an opening haul of $35 million. The Chris Sanders-directed film grossed $2.2 million on Monday, bringing its running total to $38 million.