Joker: Folie a Deux | October 4, 2024 | Lady Gaga is Harley Quinn in this 200M+ musical sequel

[JWR]

8 hours ago, BoxOfficeFangrl said:

It's rated R, of course...

 

 

 

Darn. And here I was hoping for a hard PG-13 /j

 

All kidding aside, I'm sure it'll do gangbusters.

[grim22]

1 hour ago, JWR said:

 

Darn. And here I was hoping for a hard PG-13 /j

 

All kidding aside, I'm sure it'll do gangbusters.

 

Hard PG-13 is such a funny thing. It's studios basically saying "We knew this needed to be R, but we need an expanded audience, so here's some gobbledygook to justify it not being R"

[ListenHunnyUrOver]

[dudalb]

26 minutes ago, ListenHunnyUrOver said:

Re Last photo: So they are swiping from the "Penguin becomes a popular hero" storyline.

[BigBoxOfficeBucks]

If it turned out to be a success, then finish the trilogy, make Batman the "antagonist" in the third movie, find Timothée Chalamet to play him.

[stripe]

6 hours ago, BigBoxOfficeBucks said:

If it turned out to be a success, then finish the trilogy, make Batman the "antagonist" in the third movie, find Timothée Chalamet to play him.

 

Batman singing... Not sure if I want to see that

[ListenHunnyUrOver]

 

[Speedorito]

Loneliness and incel behavior have been on the rise among Gen Z in the past few years. Will that be enough to counter the jukebox musical elements?

[excel1]

who is playing Dent in this?

[TylerG]

19 hours ago, excel1 said:

who is playing Dent in this?

 

 

 

[TylerG]

Japan release set for Oct 11 (Fri)

 

https://warnerbros.co.jp/c/news/2024/04/3778.html

 

 

 

Japan was the 3rd biggest international market for Joker with a cumulative $46.7M gross. Excited to see how this fares.

[SpiderByte]

So with a 200 million budget...if there's a third one what are the odds you think WB says they gotta have Batman in it

[WittyUsername]

1 hour ago, SpiderByte said:

So with a 200 million budget...if there's a third one what are the odds you think WB says they gotta have Batman in it

The Joker movies exist solely because of Todd Phillips. If he doesn’t want to do Batman, I don’t think they can force him. Besides, three concurrent live action Batmen would be sheer insanity. 

[BigBoxOfficeBucks]

2 hours ago, SpiderByte said:

So with a 200 million budget...if there's a third one what are the odds you think WB says they gotta have Batman in it

Damn, I didn't know the budget ballooned to 200 million. It put things into perspective. There might be a slight chance that it may not turn a profit. 

[HummingLemon496]

2 minutes ago, BigBoxOfficeBucks said:

Damn, I didn't know the budget ballooned to 200 million. It put things into perspective. There might be a slight chance that it may not turn a profit. 

It needs to drop around $575M+ from the first film to not make a profit

[emoviefan]

1 minute ago, BigBoxOfficeBucks said:

Damn, I didn't know the budget ballooned to 200 million. It put things into perspective. There might be a slight chance that it may not turn a profit. 

200 million dollars? What the F? For a Joker Sequel. The first movie cost 55 million. 

[HummingLemon496]

10 minutes ago, emoviefan said:

200 million dollars? What the F? For a Joker Sequel. The first movie cost 55 million. 

Yeah there's no way this out-profits the first one 🤣

[Porthos]

1 hour ago, emoviefan said:

200 million dollars? What the F? For a Joker Sequel. The first movie cost 55 million. 

 

From Variety:

 

Quote

And this is one splashy renovation. The budget for Todd Phillips’ musical “Joker” sequel — one of De Luca and Abdy’s first green lights — has ballooned to about $200 million, a significant bump from the $60 million cost of the first film. Sources say Joaquin Phoenix is getting $20 million to reprise his role as the clown prince of crime, while Lady Gaga is taking home about $12 million to play Harley Quinn. 

 

That's $32m right there.  

 

Been doing a little looking around but haven't seen sourcing on the other $170m-ish.  I presume Phillips is getting a hefty payday.  I presume the music clearance fees weren't cheap.  I presume the set budget was ballooned up the wazoo. 

 

And this was in the middle of an inflationary spike.

 

Also seen it commented that films still incur costs even if they're sitting on a shelf somewhere, without folks touching them, though the exact nature of the particulars escape me.

 

Then there's the minor factor of, "Well, the last one did 1 billie so if I took a discount last time around, gunna make sure I get mine this time."

 

Still, even with all of that $200m does seem... a bit on the excessive side.  Or perhaps indulgent might be a better fitting term.

 

Better hope the pigs/hogs adage doesn't rear its head!

[TylerG]

3 hours ago, BigBoxOfficeBucks said:

There might be a slight chance that it may not turn a profit.

There's no universe in which this film isn't profitable, lbr. Obviously the factor won't nearly be anywhere as close to the original nor does it have to be, but we all know that.

 

1 hour ago, Porthos said:

I presume Phillips is getting a hefty payday

This wasn't reported in the latest Variety article but they did mention this in a 2022 article about DC:

 

Quote

Both Joaquin Phoenix and director Todd Phillips are believed to be getting $20 million paydays, and new costar Lady Gaga is getting $10 million.

 

Gaga's salary has since been revised to $12M so assuming Todd's salary is same as Joaquin's, that's $52M out of the $200M, which leaves $148M for the production budget. Surely on the higher side but not nearly preposterous enough to warrant all the premature pearl-clutching and "this is way too much, it's going to bomb!!" discourse that I've been seeing on Twitter/X over the last few weeks before the first trailer has even landed.

[Porthos]

4 minutes ago, TylerG said:

Gaga's salary has since been revised to $12M so assuming Todd's salary is same as Joaquin's, that's $52M out of the $200M, which leaves $148M for the production budget. Surely on the higher side but not nearly preposterous enough to warrant all the premature pearl-clutching and "this is way too much, it's going to bomb!!" discourse that I've been seeing on Twitter/X over the last few weeks before the first trailer has even landed.

 

While the pearl clutching is overwrought (though it is social media, so par for the course), I do think noting that the budget tripled if one takes out actor/director salaries is fair (or doubled-and-a-half if one wants to take into account inflation).  

 

How much of that "street level" feel that was I think part of Joker's success will be lost?  Will it be lost at all? I guess noting the possibility of bloat is where I'm at.  Not being a doomsayer by any means (hell, see my stance I just laid out in the DP3 thread), but wondering/musing on how the toan/feel of the movie might be different this go around.

 

Tone is a subtle thing after all.  I do think there is gonna be tremendous up front interest in it.  How it actually translates into butts in the seats/WOM?  "Curious" is where I think I'm at right now.