‘Joker 2’ stumbles at box office amid poor reviews from audiences and critics

“Joker: Folie à Deux” is the No. 1 movie at the box office but is not destined for a happy ending. Studio estimates Sunday show the follow-up to Todd Phillips’ 2019 origin story about the Batman villain opened in theaters nationwide this weekend to a muted $40 million. That's less than half of the original film opened to five years ago on its way to making more than $1 billion. Critics were divided on the sequel, but audiences seemed to reject it too, giving it a deadly D CinemaScore. “Joker: Folie à Deux” also cost at least twice as much as the first film to produce.