Yes, as expected, Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie à Deux” bombed hard at the box-office and is now expected to have a $39M domestic opening weekend. It was just a month ago that it was tracking at around $120M.
‘Folie à Deux’ cost around $190M to produce, and Warner Bros will be now taking a hard hit on this film, which could make them lose hundreds of millions of dollars. Toxic word of mouth is no doubt to blame for these numbers. Phillips has even announced his exit from the DCU.
Taking a page out of Kubrick’s great film, it seems as though Francis Ford Coppola is telling Todd Phillips to stop worrying and love the bomb. Despite the catastrophic numbers, Coppola went on his Instagram to “congratulate” Phillips on the film, which he’s apparently seen.
Todd Phillips’ films always amaze me and I enjoy them thoroughly. Ever since the wonderful “The Hangover” he’s always one step ahead of the audience never doing what they expect. Congratulations to Joker: Folie à Deux! I am also honored that the films DP, Lawrence Sher, mentioned that the film is visually inspired by “One From the Heart."
Coppola being a fan of Phillips’ filmography was not on my bingo card. Phillips started out as the helmer of raunchy R-rated comedies (“The Hangover,” “Old School,” “Road Trip,” “Due Date”) but has more recently delved into directing dramas (“War Dogs,” “Joker”).
Regardless, Coppola would know a thing or two about hard losses. His self-funded $136M “Megalopolis” made a cool $1M over the weekend, that’s a 75% drop from last Sunday’s numbers. Both Coppola and Phillips’ films were risk-taking, ambitious and pricey as hell — the gamble didn’t pay off. Will audiences reappraise them in the coming years? Or will they both live in infamy?