Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker crashes everywhere in 2024: it’s also a disaster on TF1 after Joker 2 at the cinema

News culture Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker crashes everywhere in 2024: it’s also a disaster on TF1 after Joker 2 at the cinema

A box office flop for Joker 2?

The Joker no longer wants to laugh. The joke takes a sad turn for the clown of Gotham who sees his second cinematographic adventure in the guise of Joaquin Phoenix heading towards a predictable flop at the box office. Joker: Folie à Deux with the multifaceted artist Lady Gaga has been heavily criticized since its first screenings by a press that is not kind. Indeed, Todd Philipps’ creation has a RottenTomatoes score of 33%. Adam Kempenaar of Filmspotting doesn’t pull the wool over his head: “Dramatically inert, deliberately devoting 138 minutes to revealing what was already evident in the first film.” In other words, Joker 2 would have no reason to exist.

And the public was not mistaken, as demonstrated by the first box office results of Joker: Folie à Deux. Since its release on October 2 in France and October 4 in the United States, the film collected 165.31 million US dollars internationally, including 51.611 million in its domestic market and 113.7 million in the rest of the world. For comparison and for an equivalent period, Joker (2019) had gleaned 96.202 million during its first weekend of release in North America compared to 37.678 million for its sequel, almost three times less. Even on French territory, the observation is striking. Joker 2 convinced 601,995 people to go to theaters in the first week compared to 1.58 million for Joker. The shortest jokes are often the best.

A historic flop for TF1

Even on French television, Todd Philipps’ Joker no longer attracts crowds. TF1 had however relied on the appeal of the general public for a film which caused a sensation in 2019 at the cinema and on the release of the sequel a few days before to attract the crowds, but the French for the majority of them preferred to watch something else. France 2 was the big winner of the evening of Sunday October 13 with the thriller Kompromat which attracted 3 million viewers. In second place is the investigative magazine Capital with 2.82 million people. Finally, on the third and last step of the podium stands Joker with 1.975 million curious people. With only 11.2% market share compared to the 16.6% of France 2 and 15.5% of M6, TF1 suffered a historic setback, especially in the Sunday evening slot generally acquired by France’s leading channel.

1. Kompromat (France 2) – 16.6%
2. Capital / Management, schemes and fortune: Revelations about the money of travelers (M6) – 15.2%
3. Joker (TF1) – 11,2%
4. Brokenwood / In the heart (France 3) – 11%
5. K-18: The Trap of the Deep (Arte) – 4.4%