Terrifier 3 looks set to beat Joker: Folie à Deux at the box office in the US this weekend.
It comes after the latter drew an estimated domestic box office opening of $40million (£30.5million) on its opening weekend – roughly half of its predecessor, and well short of its original projections of $70million (£53.5million) three weeks ago. The film had a budget of $190million (£145million).
Now, with Terrifier 3 expected to gross beyond $11million (£8.41million) on its opening weekend when it is officially released tomorrow (October 11), that is likely to knock Todd Phillips‘ sequel off the top spot, according to Deadline.
Ticket sales for the Joker sequel are projected to drop by at least 60 per cent to 65 per cent in its second weekend, which would amount to between $13million (£9.9million) and $15million (£11.4million).
As recently noted by The Hollywood Reporter, it is also the first Hollywood comic book movie adaptation to have earned a ‘D’ score from the market research firm CinemaScore, indicating that many audiences are not enamoured with the sequel.
Even critically maligned comic book films, such as The Marvels or The Flash, have previously scored respectable CinemaScore marks, with both examples being given a ‘B’ grade.
Folie à Deux also currently sits on a lowly 33 per cent critics score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes – compared to Joker’s 68 per cent.
In a four-star review of Folie à Deux, NME wrote: “In short, Phillips and Silver have delivered the last thing anyone expected: a socially responsible Joker movie that finds an intriguing way to explore the consequences (both on and offscreen) of the first film. Joker fans shouldn’t cry too hard though – Warner Bros. have cleverly found a way to leave the door open a little for the franchise to continue, should the need arise.”
Meanwhile, Phillips recently suggested that Folie à Deux will be the final film in his Joker
franchise. “It was fun to play in this sort of sandbox for two movies, but I think we’ve said what we wanted to say in this world,” he added.