Box Office: The Joke is on Warner Bros.

[sandstorm]

Box Office: 'Joker 2' Stumbles With Lackluster $40 Million Debut https://t.co/OhqIWMG0Mk
- Variety (@Variety) October 6, 2024

Joker: Folie à Deux is out there with 39m$ OR 40m$. Either way, a far cry critically and commercially than the first one which opened with 96m$ this same weekend 5 years ago. It failed to meet expectations, which were

Comments

[a_files06]

Peter Safran talking Batgirl:
“On the Batgirl front, it’s not about late in the process of the film getting canceled. I saw the movie, and there are a lot of incredibly talented people in front of and behind the camera on that film. But that film was not releasable, and it happens sometimes. That film was not releasable. I actually think that [president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery David] Zaslav and the team made a very bold and courageous decision to cancel it because it would have hurt DC. It would have hurt those people involved.” (Budget: 90million)

Joker 2:
Budget: $150-$200million
Opening: $40million
CinemaScore: D
RT score: 33%

The Flash:
Budget: $200-$220million
Box Office: $271million
CinemaScore: B
RT Score: 63%

[sandstorm]

To be kind of fair, they now have a totally new DC Universe that starts next year, and Joker doesn't even seem to be part of the old one (the last DCEU movie I watched was like THE Suicide Squad so I may be out of the loop).

On the other hand, the ordinary moviegoer won't know so ha @ these damaging the brand.

[a_files06]

The thing is - Batgirl would've been part of the old DCEU that just wrapped up with Aquaman and it would've been out last year if not earlier. So it couldn't hurt the DC brand anymore than any of their flops have.

Even Aquaman 2 flopped

[queenursula]

It was part of the planned new universe with Keaton as Batman.

[a_files06]

Which didnt go anywhere so it couldnt have harmed anything. They were just swapping out Affleck with Keaton.

[queenursula]

It wouldn’t have made sense canon-wise for that reason with Keaton being Batman.

[a_files06]

But they already knew Gunn was rebooting anyway

[queenursula]

Batgirl was being worked on before Gunn was hired. At the time the plan was for Flash to start a new universe with Keaton as Batman in a Nick Fury type role.

[squirrels_oh_no]

I call bullshit on the not releasable thing. Look at how much shit gets released by WB, and for this argument, I am not even including Joker 2.

(ETA: Why wasn't The Idol a tax write off then, hmm Zaslav, HMMMMM?!?!?!?!)

[pseudonygma]

It wasn't releasable because it wasn't finished. Wasn't it like 80% done? Did they have a hard deadline that they knew they couldn't meet and it was cheaper to scrap the entire thing than having to deal with all the costs of unmet deadlines? The way the entire thing went down felt personal and punitive. Movies don't get scrapped this late in the game. Especially when it comes to movies that tested well like that Wile E. Coyote movie.

[squirrels_oh_no]

Zaslav has said before he doesn't like movies (and he comes from Discovery, which during his reign prioritized more and more reality shows vs. documentaries and such). It also came off as punitive toward female-led superhero movies, but now they're making Supergirl so who fucking knows.

[babarsuhail]

Apparently they didn't even bother test screening this mess and Todd Phillips had final cut.