Well I think those are * records outside of the R rated billion one. I think just a hare more people went to see Batman for those other movies, and leto is basically an extended cameo in SS. Darth Vadar was bigger, probably a few others, but hands down the GOAT comic book villain. I don't think anyone ever heard of any of the villains from the MCU before the films (I'm talking about real people, it's easily Joker, Lex Luther, maybe Green Goblin or Magneto and that's pretty much it for general audiences)

I actually blame the marketing on this one, it really became a non factor after the awesome teaser trailer. I haven't seen a single tv ad, even a youtube ad for this movie, I've seen a lot of Venom though. It really went dormant marketing wise which is weird, I work in sports media now so I'm surrounded by ads, tv, etc all day long and I almost even forgot this was coming out because I saw it over a month ago at a special even. Beetlejuice really stole its thunder though, it had so many ads in so many different places. A lot of franchises have been guilty of this though recently. It never even attempted to show a plot or get a hook that Phoenix was reprising his role.

Rotten Tomatoes and audience score now in the mid 30s. Could this possibly miss $100M total? Lol.

I can’t be the only one not surprised by this? I smelled this coming more and more as details came out about it… starting with the subtitle (Folie a Deux?? a french subtitle for an American as apple pie, bro-tastic villain / antihero?). Casting Lady Gaga seemed a inspired / smart / artistic choice until you realize there is probably about zero overlap with fans of the first film and Mz Bad Romance… Making it a love story?? Again, target audience is not into that (sharp turn from the Scorcese inspired crime drama / thriller of the first). Making it a musical??? or a juke box musical??? were they trying to make fans of the first hate this one??

Also, the first had a genuine zeitgeist intrigue factor, propelled by hype and novelty of a dramatic interpretation of an iconic villain. It’s almost impossible to recapture that buzz, and apparently just as hard to follow the artistic act of the first movie (which I thought was disturbing but excellent… and I have had absolutely no desire to see the sequel).

Bombs away

The audience score is 37%... oh jeez the movie isn't that bad lol

Charlie is saying $7M in previews. $50M weekend but this could miss that.

This is probably the probably one of the the biggest disasters for a sequel ever.

Even Alice and Marvels were expected. Both rode artificial buzz in a way to lofty original grosses (Avatar 3D craze with Alice 1 as the first big 3D film to open after that, and Captain Marvel out 6 weeks before End Game).

Joker wasn't in that category and built up its goodwill over several weeks. Feels more like a Matrix 3 of Speed 2 Cruise Control type mess here.

This has to be the biggest disaster of all time looking at wasted potential. They had no business spending 200m on this considering its a drama with no action or CGI. Should have spent the same as last time with additional actor fees based on BO. Plus who on earth signed off the terrible script. WB is easily the worst big studio at this point. They are relying on directors to bail them out. Philips is not good enough to do that. I expect this will have impact on kind of budgets Philips will get next.

I just don't think Joker 2 will do as well as The Flash (with a $55 million opening weekend) because The Flash satisfies the "general audience" more than Joker 2.
I have never read a Flash comic book but have seen many of the CW episodes of The Flash. My definition of "general audience" might be someone who has seen a TV show of the character but not read the comic books. In the CW show, most of the big bads of each season is a character who has super speed like the Flash. The movie starring Ezra Miller also features an antagonist with super speed. Both the movie and the CW show feature Iris West, Barry Allen's love interest. Generally I think those who like the CW show would likely think the movie is ok.
The Joker 2 has a big problem in that DC fans like Batman facing off against The Joker. We don't get this in Joker 1 nor Joker 2. In the first movie we learn this "Joker" is an adult while Bruce Wayne is still a child. Usually Batman stories have the Joker older than Bruce Wayne so there isn't a problem there. In the fox show Gotham, "Joker" is indeed older than a teenager Bruce Wayne. However Gotham's "Joker", one of the twins Jerome and Jermiah, isn't the "Joker" that typical Batman stories tell. Fans who were anticipating a real story about the Joker were only told after the fact that the writers of Gotham were not allowed to tell the origin story of Joker.
I will try not to reveal the spoilers I heard floating in the internet but I could say fans are definitely disappointed in this movie.

So is Harley Quinn repulsive at the box office?

Birds of Prey famously underwhelmed in Feb. 2020. Now Joker 2.

They'll probably give the character a break. May be worth bringing back Catwoman since the 90s are trendy again.

Nah. Birds of Prey did ok in retrospect compared Suicide Squard and this. Perhaps people are just over DC constantly making sub par films. I don't think the first Joker is good at all but Phoenix was fantastic to watch. I think that has been DC in general, great performances, very DTV films.

An interesting thought. I don't understand why they would throw all that money and not make him part of Reeve's universe. I never had any interest in this movie to be honest, even though I liked the teaser. I've said this many times, never make a sequel to an Best Actor/Actress winning movie. They have all underperformed spectacularly, I'd say except Godfather 2, but Brando said hell no.

I think they will try the Harley/Poison Ivy couple on big screen (probably flop). Maybe it should be Poison Ivy’s movie since she is pretty fresh for the superhero IP gold rush era.

A live action version of Harley's show would be great but also probably bomb.

I'm not so sure, I think she was a main reason Suicide Squad 2016 had so much hype, people had never seen her in a big movie like that before. But that film sucking ass probably soured people's perceptions of the character.

Harley Quinn is a third tier character anyway, and she's an off-shoot of a main villain, not even a main villain herself, so it stands to reason that she isn't popular at the box office.

I mean that doesn’t really matter, same can be said about iron man, hellboy, and both versions have been good. It’s the films around them. But I don’t think anyone has said Harley Quinn hasn’t been done well so far adaptation wise.

Now BOP was decent enough to say she’s no black widow in terms of draw, but I don’t think she hurts be being involved.