Joker 2 Is About To Lose To Terrifier’s Art The Clown At The Box Office

Warner Bros. recently suffered a huge defeat as “Joker: Folie a Deux,” aka “Joker 2,” straight-up bombed at the box office with a $37.8 million opening weekend. Given the absolutely lousy word of mouth thanks to the historically bad D CinemaScore Todd Phillips’ sequel earned, it’s now going to be a surprisingly tight race at the box office beginning this Friday. Come Monday morning, another killer clown might be sitting pretty atop the charts.

Amazingly enough, with “Joker” expected to drop like a rock this weekend, Bloody Disgusting and Cineverse’s “Terrifier 3,” an unrated, ultra-gory slasher movie, now has a very real shot at topping the box office. Per Deadline, director Damien Leone’s follow-up to “Terrifier 2” is looking to make at least $11 million over the weekend. Its prospects have only gone up in recent days/weeks. Meanwhile, “Folie a Deux” is likely looking at a drop of at least 70% in weekend two, which means it’s going to struggle to get to $11 million. The math suddenly makes it seem like Art the Clown will prevail over Arthur Fleck. This is, to put it mildly, a stunning turn of events.

The first “Joker” opened to more than $96 million en route to over $1 billion worldwide, becoming a surprise smash success, with Joaquin Phoenix winning Best Actor at the Oscars for his portrayal of Arthur Fleck. To say that the collapse of the sequel out of the gate is surprising would be an understatement.

On the other side of the fence, the first “Terrifier” was at best a cult hit when it was released in 2016. However, 2022’s “Terrifier 2” became a surprise success, taking in more than $15 million worldwide on a mere $250,000 budget. That put the franchise on the map and helped make David Howard Thornton’s Art the Clown a modern slasher icon.

There is much to discuss, and we will have more to say come Monday morning when the final numbers come in. For now, there’s no way to predict the future, but with the data we have before us, it feels safe to say no matter what happens, we’re in for a shock. There’s an outside shot that both of these movies fall short, with “The Wild Robot” holding well and topping the charts as the family-friendly option.

Regardless, this is going to be a straight-up disaster for Warner Bros. “Joker: Folie a Deux” carries a production budget in the $200 million range, as opposed to the first film which cost around $60 million. At this point, the sequel would be extremely lucky to clear $300 million worldwide. WB is going to lose a fortune. The only good news is that DC Studios had nothing to do with “Joker 2.” Studio heads James Gunn and Peter Safran get to wash their hands of it.

As for “Terrifier 3,” it’s all upside for all involved. The total investment — including marketing — is said to be in the $5 million range. It will be in profits by Monday no matter what. Less than a week ago, we were predicting a debut of $10 million on the high end for Leone’s Christmas-set slasher. Now? We very well could be looking at the first example I can find of an unrated movie topping the box office in North America. What a time to be alive.

“Terrifier 3” hits theaters on October 11, 2024.