The North American film market last weekend ushered in the large-scale release of the comic-book superhero spin-off movie "Joker: folie à deux". Over the three days of the weekend, the film was released in 4,100 theaters in North America. Although it firmly topped the weekend box office list, its opening box office was only US$40 million, which was far lower than the US$96.2 million of the previous film.
Five years ago, "Joker" directed by Todd Phillips suddenly emerged and unexpectedly won the Golden Lion Award, the highest honor at the Venice Film Festival. It then set off a movie-watching craze around the world, and finally achieved a box office success of US$1.07 billion. , became the highest-grossing film released or produced by non-Disney in 2019, and was also the highest-grossing restricted film in film history before the advent of "Deadpool and Wolverine"; it was also nominated for 11 Academy Awards, and eventually won, including Best With two Oscars for Leading Actor (Joaquin Phoenix) and Best Original Score, it can be said to be a successful example of both critical acclaim and critical acclaim.
"Joker 2: Double Delusion" will be released in mainland China on October 16.
The protagonist of the film is "Joker". Although this character is the villain in the dc comic " Batman " series, the movie "Joker" The story is basically original and has little to do with DC comics. Therefore, for such an independent story, it stands to reason that without the blessing of the original work, it would be difficult to film a sequel. However, leaving such a successful work without making a sequel is really not in line with Hollywood's current pursuit of maximizing profits, so the birth of "Joker 2" seems logical.
It was previously reported that according to the original idea of starring Joaquin Phoenix and director Todd Phillips, a musical version of "Joker 2" should be put on the Broadway stage to test the waters to see how it works, and then Deciding whether to make a second part or not. However, the sudden arrival of the new coronavirus completely disrupted their plans. The stage play was cancelled, but the idea of adding a lot of singing and dancing to "Joker 2" was retained and was directly used in this sequel.
It is worth mentioning that the production cost of the first "Joker" was only US$55 million, and it achieved a global box office of US$1 billion, which definitely made the producer Warner Bros. a huge profit. But this time the production cost of the second part is like a rocket, soaring to 190 million U.S. dollars. Add in the cost of promotion and distribution, and the total expenditure may be as high as 300 million U.S. dollars. Judging from the current box office situation of the film, Warner, which can only get about half of the total global box office, is likely to be unable to make ends meet this time.
Back in early September, due to the poor reputation at the Venice Film Festival, the industry generally predicted that the film's opening box office would not be comparable to the first film, but it was also expected to exceed US$70 million. As a result, since its premiere last Friday, everyone has watched "Joker 2" encounter the problem of failing to attract enough audiences in major cities in North America. The box office expectations for the opening have been lowered, from US$70 million to US$70 million. To 50 million U.S. dollars, no one expected that it would only end up being 40 million U.S. dollars.
There is probably only one reason: the reputation is really bad - whether it is feedback from the audience or comments from film critics. Currently, the film only has a 33% fresh rating on the film review website Rotten Tomatoes. If the first part's 68% freshness rating can be called polarizing, this one has almost one-sided negative reviews. Not only did the second part insert a large number of songs, which made many viewers who liked the first part find it difficult to adapt; the pace of the story was also obviously slower than the first part, and the film length reached two and a half hours. No wonder there are a large number of reviews complaining about the film’s “weak story, dull atmosphere” and “making people sleepy”.
In the end, "Joker 2" received only a D grade from the CinemaScore audience poll, setting the worst score for any comic-book super movie. The record was previously held by 2015's "Fantastic Four," which had a CinemaScore of C-. The first "Joker" in 2019 received a B+ rating. It is not difficult to imagine that among the viewers who gave "Joker 2" a low D-level score, many people may be rating it more or less emotionally.As the saying goes, the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment, so it is inevitable to give a negative review with some anger.
"White Bird: Miracle" poster
Another new film released over the weekend at the same time as "Joker 2" is the feature film "White Bird: Miracle" (White Bird) produced by Lionsgate Pictures. The film is directed by Marc Forster, who filmed "The Dance of the Dead". The reason why the film has the word "miracle" in the title is because it is similar to the "Wonder Boy" released in 2017 both inside and outside the film. There is some inheritance relationship.
The "Wonder Boy" starring Julia Roberts was adapted from the novel of the same name written by R.J. Palacio. It tells the story of a boy born with facial deformities who overcomes various difficulties with the help of his parents. Touching story. Among the so-called difficulties are discrimination and bullying from classmates. This time "White Bird: Miracle" is also adapted from Palacio's novel. The plot is claimed to be both a prequel and a sequel to "Miracle Boy" because one of the protagonists of "White Bird: Miracle" is "Miracle Boy". Julian, the rich boy who loves to bully in "Miracle Boys". After being expelled from campus due to ethics issues, he soon received a visit from his grandmother. Grandma told him a story from her childhood, involving the unfortunate experiences of Jews during World War II... The role of Grandma in the film was played by veteran British actor Helen Mirren. As a statuette winner, her acting skills are undeniable. The problem is that it is increasingly difficult for stories like this aimed at middle-aged and older audiences to win the favor of North American audiences. "Wonder Boy", released in 2017, had an investment cost of US$20 million, but the global box office reached US$300 million, making Lionsgate Pictures a huge profit. After seven years, "White Bird: Miracle" was released in 1,018 theaters in North America. Even though the cinemascore reached an A+ level, the opening box office was only US$1.53 million, ranking eighth on the weekend box office list. Numbers like
are even far less than another new movie released this weekend: "Sam and Colby: the legends of the paranormal." The latter was only released in 302 theaters in North America, which means it is one-third the size of "White Bird: Miracle", but it also opened with a box office of US$1.75 million, ranking sixth on the weekend box office list.
"Sam and Colby: Supernatural Legends" is directed and starred by two video up owners named Sam and Colby. Since 2019, they have opened a personal channel on YouTube, specializing in various supernatural events, including haunted house visits and alien research, and have quickly gained a large number of fans. This time, the content of "Sam and Colby: Supernatural Legend" is actually very similar to the videos they have updated online in the past, except that the playback platform has changed from a small screen to a cinema under Cinemark Cinemas. However, as the saying goes, young people win the world. The box office comparison between "Sam and Colby: Legend of the Supernatural" and "White Bird: Miracle" fully illustrates this trend in the US box office.
