The first Joker movie was going to end like Folie à Deux, but Christopher Nolan said no

As a seasoned gamer with over two decades of experience under my belt, I must say I’ve seen more flops than a worn-out arcade cabinet. The latest addition to this unfortunate list is Joker: Folie à Deux. After the meteoric success of its predecessor, I expected nothing short of cinematic genius from Todd Phillips. But alas, it seems like he traded his director’s chair for a horse saddle on a ranch somewhere and left us with an overpriced, under-tested, and over-confident mess.

In 2019, the first Joker film was released and earned over a billion dollars at the cinema. Given such success, a follow-up was expected. However, this weekend saw the release of Joker: Folie à Deux, which has been met with widespread rejection from both audiences and critics. The box office performance has been dismal, reviews have been harsh, and executives at Warner Bros. Discovery are left puzzled as to what went wrong.

The Hollywood Reporter has sniffed around for answers. Some fun things it’s uncovered:

After the success of the first film, director Todd Phillips was given a large amount of creative control on this project. Phillips spend opening weekend “in seclusion” on a ranch he owns. Probably a good call.
There was no test screening for this film, which is unusual for a movie that costs this much; Folie à Deux cost $200 million to make.
If you’re wondering where in the hell all that money went, one big answer is salaries. Phillips and lead actor Joaquin Phoenix were each paid $20 million for the movie, while newcomer Lady Gaga was paid $12 million. Altogether, that’s $52 million. To put that in context, the first Joker movie cost $55 million to make, total.
DC Films president Walter Hamada worked on the first Joker movie. The DC movie universe was in chaos when Folie à Deux was greenlit, so no one from DC worked on the sequel. James Gunn and Peter Safran were brought in a few months later to manage the newly formed DC Studios, and both have been clear that they had no input on Folie à Deux.
Joaquin Phoenix got the idea for Folie à Deux in a dream. When asked what audience the movie was intended for, one source said: “For Joaquin.”

Beware major SPOILERS for Joker: Folie à Deux below!

It’s believed that the reason no test screenings were arranged for the movie “Folie à Deux” was due to the producers wanting to prevent any potential spoilers from leaking out. In line with this, it’s worth noting that the film ends with a significant spoiler: Arthur Fleck, better known as the Joker, meets his demise in prison, stabbed by an unidentified inmate who subsequently carves a Glasgow smile into his face – a gruesome mark signifying a permanent grin.

In Christopher Nolan‘s movie “The Dark Knight”, the Joker, portrayed by Heath Ledger, had a distinctive Glasgow smile. Originally, in the ending of the first “Joker” film, Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker was intended to self-inflict a Glasgow smile in front of an audience, but Nolan disagreed, believing that only Heath Ledger’s Joker should bear this unique mark. However, when it came to making “Folie à Deux”, Nolan was no longer associated with Warner Bros., as they had a dispute following the studio’s decision to release their films directly on streaming platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing the idea to be reconsidered.

In simpler terms, the collaborative project “Folie à Deux” encountered numerous setbacks, and it seems that handing full creative control to Phillips after his initial success may have been a misstep. This freedom allowed him to create a film that, while containing some artistic merit, failed to deliver what fans of the original movie or Batman in general were expecting.

Phillips’ Joker films stand apart from the broader DC Universe, which adds extra weight to the upcoming Superman movie directed by James Gunn. The success of this film will be crucial and we’ll find out the outcome in July.

2024-10-09 16:41