New reports reveal what led to Joker: Folie à Deux's disastrous critical and box office performance, pointing to director Todd Phillips' refusal to work closely with Warner Bros. and DC. Despite the massive success of Todd Phillips' Joker, Joker: Folie à Deux Amassed some of the worst opening weekend numbers in its genre, as well as some of the lowest critics and audience ratings in comic book movie history. Among his many criticisms, Joker: Folie à DeuxIts terrible ending, slow soundtrack and terrible treatment of Arthur Fleck have been some of the biggest controversies.
A little shy of a week later Joker: Folie à Deuxthe notice, Variety Reports say that director Todd Phillips retained nearly absolute creative control over the movie. According to Varietys sources, Phillips refused to film in London for a 20% cost reduction in favor of Los Angeles, ignored notes from DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran, and has "A little to dispel the appearance of friction" with DC. Phillips allegedly refused to screen-test Joker: Folie à Deux and pushed to debut the film at the Venice Film Festival against the studios' plans. Variety reports:
"No one can get through to Todd," says one source directly involved in the film. "And the one thing about genre stuff: If you don't listen and pay attention to what the fan expectations are, you're going to fail."
What Todd Phillips approach to Joker 2 means for the sequel and Warner Bros
The success of Joker gave Todd Phillips too much power over the sequel
Todd Phillips understood Joker As a completely standalone movie, not as the start of a franchise or a trilogy. yet Joker Grossed over $1 billion on a $55 million budget, however, a sequel is inevitable. It seems like Warner Bros. read Joker's success as a sign that Todd Phillips could recreate similar results with a sequelWhich is probably why Joker: Folie à DeuxThe budget increased to $200 million. With a higher budget came more creative freedom, and Todd Phillips simply used that creative freedom to ignore all external advice. As a result, Warner Bros. could not adjust the film to meet the expectations of critics and audiences.
Our BTS Turmoil from Joker 2
All movies as big as Joker: Folie a Deux need to be reworked several times before hitting theaters
As revealing as these reports may be, the blame for Joker: Folie à Deuxs failure cannot fall entirely on director Todd Phillips. Warner Bros.' The decision to establish a big-budget sequel to a standalone movie that specifically did not set up follow-up stories was extremely risky from the start. Reports also claim that the idea for Joker: Folie a Deux Came to Joaquin Phoenix in a dream. Between attempts to recreate the success of the first movie, subverting Jokers story, and let Phillips and Phoenix's imagination run wild, it doesn't seem like there was a clear purpose behind it Joker: Folie à Deux.
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On top of that, the decision to make Joker: Folie à Deux A musical should immediately have raised questions about its critical and commercial projections. It should also be evident that the decision to kill Arthur Fleck is not going to sit well with most viewers - let alone after Arthur's Joker persona failed to shine for more than two hours. If Joker: Folie à Deux was aiming for a strong box office, build on that Joker Established is probably the way to go. If the sequel was instead to fulfill the director's creative vision, a much smaller budget might have been more appropriate.
Source: Variety
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