Why ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Was a Box Office Flop — And a Lesson in Overestimating the Appeal of “Artistic” Blockbusters
By Natalie McCarty
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When Joker (2019) hit theaters, there was a cultural shock — a gritty, psychological character study that felt more Scorsese than superhero. Joaquin Phoenix’s tortured performance as Arthur Fleck earned him an Oscar, while the film grossed over $1 billion. Naturally, a sequel was inevitable, but instead of playing it safe, director Todd Phillips swerved even harder into the experimental and contemporary lane with Joker: Folie à Deux, a musical co-starring Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn.
It was a bold swing — and, judging by the box office numbers, a colossal miss.
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“A La La Land for People Who Match Each Other’s Freaks”
At its core, Joker: Folie à Deux is La La Land for couples who communicate through mutual dysfunction. Arthur and Harley dance through Gotham’s grimy streets, yes, but they also spiral into madness through an unsettling blend of Broadway-style jazz ballads and psychological breakdowns.
The concept sounds avant-garde—and it is—but in practice, it alienated audiences expecting more gritty chaos and less Les Misérables-meets-Taxi Driver.
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The film’s marketing leaned heavily on its “two lost souls finding love in the abyss” theme, but that dynamic was already familiar, and this one just fell short. What could have been a powerful exploration of toxic love felt more like indulging in its aesthetic. It was like a theatrical fever dream that felt overstuffed but underdeveloped.
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Musical Ambition, Minimal Payoff
The choice to make Folie à Deux a musical was polarizing from the start. While Lady Gaga’s powerhouse vocals were a natural fit, the film’s musical numbers were fragmented and tonally inconsistent. They lacked the earworm appeal of a true musical while being too stylized to pass as ironic commentary. The songs felt like surreal intermissions rather than integral storytelling devices.
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The numbers felt like performance art pieces dropped into a nihilistic crime thriller: jarring instead of cohesive.
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Mistaking “Different” for “Good”
Perhaps Folie à Deux’s biggest flaw was mistaking artistic ambition for guaranteed success. The first Joker worked because its gritty realism tapped into a cultural zeitgeist of disillusionment. The sequel doubled down on artistic risk but failed to anchor it in a compelling narrative. Audiences don’t mind weird; however, they do mind weird without purpose.
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The Franchise That Never Wanted to Be One
The irony is that Joker was never meant to be a franchise. Its standalone success almost cursed its sequel, forcing a follow-up that never felt creatively necessary. While Folie à Deux tried to reinvent the wheel, it forgot the essential element of Joker: connecting with audiences on a visceral level.
Sometimes, matching each other’s freaks isn’t enough. Folie à Deux shot for an Oscar-worthy film, but landed somewhere closer to an extended music video for a very dark, very expensive concept album. Bold? Absolutely. But in a franchise-driven world, even chaos needs a little structure.
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