Entertainment

Francis Ford Coppola Comforts Todd Phillips as ‘Joker’ Sequel Flails

Published

1 month ago

October 6, 2024

Hold in there, Todd Phillips.

That was the message Francis Ford Coppola tried to get throughout in a social media submit on Saturday. As his new movie Megalopolis continues to bomb on the field workplace, he praised Todd Phillips for making Joker: Folie à Deux, which is likewise struggling.

The Joker sequel, which is launching in theaters across the globe this weekend, is opening nicely behind expectations after changing into the primary Hollywood comedian e-book pic in historical past to obtain a D Cinemascore. The viewers backlash isn’t an enormous shock, contemplating that the follow-up is a musical, making for an uncommon hybrid that fanboys may not have wished.

Coppola says Phillips’ movies have at all times amazed him and supplied enjoyment. He additionally instructed that moviegoers is probably not prepared for a movie equivalent to Joker: Folie à Deux. “Ever for the reason that fantastic The Hangover, he’s at all times been one step forward of the viewers by no means doing what they count on. Congratulations to Joker: Folie à Deux,” Coppola wrote on Instagram.

That’s solely barely worse than the D+ awarded to Megalopolis when it opened in cinemas final weekend. Coppola’s dystopian epic debuted to a mere $4 million in opposition to a manufacturing funds of $120 million earlier than advertising. No main studio would contact the film, so Coppola raised the funds himself, together with placing up a few of his personal cash. Lionsgate got here aboard on the eleventh hour to distribute the film, which is heading in the right direction to earn lower than $1 million this weekend.

Joker: Folie à Deux — a hybrid antihero pic and a musical that stars Joaquin Phoenix and Girl Gaga — had no bother getting made after Phillips’ Joker grossed $1 billion globally in 2019 and earned quite a few Oscar nominations, in addition to a finest actor win for Phoenix. The primary Joker price $55 million to make earlier than advertising; the sequel price a internet $190 million to $200 million, upping the stakes dramatically.

When Folie à Deux first got here on monitoring three weeks in the past, it seemed like it might open to $70 million. Whereas nonetheless behind the primary movie’s $96 million home opening, it was a good quantity. Nonetheless, as opinions began coming in and the movie was screened for influences, curiosity waned and there was a notable dip in monitoring. Heading into this weekend, the forecast was $50 million to $60 million.

Primarily based on Friday’s opening day gross of $20 million, nevertheless, Folie à Deux appears to be like to open within the low- to mid-$40 million vary (one rival studio even has it within the excessive $30 million vary).

Becoming a member of the D CinemaScore membership isn’t the one factor that Coppola and Phillips have in frequent, because it seems.

Coppola stated in his Instagram submit he’s honored that Joker 2 cinematographer Lawrence Sher has talked about how Coppola’s notorious 1981 musical One From the Coronary heart — a important and business flop, which almost put his Zoetrope studio out of enterprise — supplied inspiration for Folie à Deux. (In recent times, critics have revisited One From the Coronary heart, turning it into one thing of a cult basic.)

Reviewers haven’t been variety to both Megalopolis or Joker 2, which have a 46 % and 33 % critic’s rating on Rotten Tomatoes.