consequence.net: Whenever there’s a critical and commercial bomb on the level of this fall’s Joker: Folie à Deux, an inevitable part of the aftermath is articles breaking down the behind-the-scenes drama that led to disaster. “Why No One Will Get Fired Over ‘Joker: Folie à Deux,’” The Hollywood Reporter explained, while Variety offered up “Inside the ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Debacle: Todd Phillips ‘Wanted Nothing to Do’ With DC on the $200 Million Misfire.”
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I think that the general public’s tastes are cyclical, and it must be difficult as a director (and for the producers financing them) to try and pin down what the next best thing is. The original Joker was a huge success, so obviously the studio would try to replicate it, but it failed to a degree that NO ONE could have expected. What makes a good sequel, even? Few franchises are able to one up the original—The Godfather, Home Alone, and Terminator, to name a few, but what did they have that these flops don’t? The article cites four examples of films/shows that have become overindulgent as their popularity grows: Euphoria, Strangers Things, Ted Lasso and Joker 2. Each one grew in run time and budget as audiences demanded more content, but reviews still continued to drop nonetheless. I think that each of these programs brought something new (or at least refreshing) to audiences: Euphoria was a gritty account of high school in America in a way we have never seen, Stranger Things brought us back to the 80s sci-fi aesthetic, and Joker gave the titular character a lot more humanity and depth than we’ve ever seen. However, as they got greenlit and renewed for sequels, producers doubled down on these aspects and prioritized tone over plot. It leaves them feeling like cheap imitations of the originals.
Before its release, I was hearing about this movie all the time. So many people were excited for it and it seemed like it could very well be one of the most successful movies of the year. Then it came out and all of a sudden I didn’t hear anything more about it. People stopped talking about it, it seemed like nobody had seen it, and it faded into the background of failed movies. Reading this article gave me such an interesting perspective on what happened with this movie and why it ended up not being a success. I think it’s so important that artists listen to both their collaborators and to outside opinions and this movie just serves to reinforce that feeling for me. While I’ve seen things like this happen to smaller scale projects before, this was a huge project and it seems crazy that problems like this one could happen on this scale.
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