2024-10-07 21:37:42
Credit, Alamy
- Author, Nicola Barbiere
- Role, BBC News
7 hours ago
It’s one of those disasters that must have seemed like a good idea at the time. In 2019, Todd Phillips’ Joker shook up the rules for superheroes, placing Batman’s archenemy in a dark urban psychodrama.
And when it was announced Joker: Delirium for two it would have been a musical with Lady Gaga in the role of Lee Quinzel aka Harley Quinn, that didn’t seem like a bad idea either. Once again, Phillips has placed DC Comics characters into an unexpected genre.
This time it wasn’t worth it. Joker: Delirium for two it grossed $37.8 million in its opening weekend in the United States, less than half of what the first film distributed in the same period.
On the website Deadline, Antonio D’Alessandro called the film “one of the lowest sequel openings in memory for a franchise film based on a comic book”, adding the blunt comparison that at this stage it was even worse than the Marvel film of last year. failure, The Wonders.
Credit, Warner Bros
Photo caption, Joker: Delirium for two sees its antihero Arthur Fleck on trial and spends a lot of time reflecting on what happened in the first film
For those of us who have seen Delirium for two when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival last month, this catastrophic result isn’t a huge surprise, given that Phillips and his team seemed intent on disappointing and even mocking fans of the original Joker: instead of showing Arthur who attacks Gotham City, the new film paints him as a broken man that only the deluded would admire.
Furthermore, Phillips makes this statement in the most self-indulgent, navel-gazing way.
Most sequels continue the story told by their predecessor or retell it with some variations, but this one takes more than two hours to remind you of that story.
Whether Arthur’s past crimes are discussed by his therapist and an interviewer at Arkham Asylum, or by lawyers and witnesses in the Gotham City courtroom, scene after scene is dedicated to people talking about what happened in a five-part film years ago.
These debates might be interesting in a magazine article, a spin-off comic, or a bar chat, but they’re not material for a success of 200 million dollars.
Yes, you read that right. Delirium for two it cost between $190 and $200 million, an almost unbelievable jump from the first film’s $65 million budget.
And that’s the real reason why opening weekend is so disastrous.
If it had cost how much Jokeror even double, its box office receipts perhaps wouldn’t seem so insignificant. But about three times as much? Delirium for two It’s crazy.
The rising costs of Hollywood
Not that this is the craziest amount spent on a Hollywood film in recent memory.
Last year, a Daily Telegraph article listed some of the astronomically expensive blockbusters coming out, including Surrender of the Dead Quick, Part One ($290 million) and The Flash ($220 million).
Add marketing costs to these numbers and everyone has to perform phenomenally to break even.
Ultimately, none of these films are estimated to have made any significant profits and Indiana Jones And The Flash suffered significant losses.
But the article placed much of the blame for these films’ monumental costs on visual effects, particularly those visual effects that had to be completed at great speed to fit the release schedule set by the studio.
And regardless of what you thought of them, each of these films seemed destined to become a box office hit.
In terms of the stellar cast, global locations, elaborate stunts and, yes, the visual effects they were all spectacular.
This is not the case with Phillips’ dark, small-scale drama. In fact, there aren’t many other Hollywood films where money isn’t so foolishly plastered across the screen.
Credit, Alamy
Photo caption, Fast and Furious 10 is one of several recent hits with huge budgets
Delirium for two There are no big action scenes. It has no amazing effects. It’s true that Phoenix and Gaga don’t work for free, but neither of them are megastars in the film industry.
And it’s true that there are song-and-dance numbers, but these pay homage to old musicals and TV specials, so they’re not particularly lavish.
A detailed analysis of where all the money went would be much more exciting to read than the movie script.
Ultimately, the whole project starts to feel like a strangely postmodern joke at Hollywood’s expense.
Em JokerArthur attacked Gotham’s wealthiest people and criticized the arrogance of the entertainment industry; this time, the overspending and underperformance of the film itself achieved the same goal.
Delirium for two burned a mountain of studio money in a manner reminiscent of Heath Ledger’s Joker setting fire to a building’s worth of hundred-dollar bills The Dark Knight.
It would have been nobler if Phillips had spent all those millions on something useful.
When Cord Jefferson won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay of an American novel in March, he made a point of including in his acceptance speech a line that now seems like a prescient critique of the state of the world. Joker: Delirium for two.
“I understand the risk aversion of the industry, I get it, but even $200 million movies are a risk,” he said.
“And it doesn’t always work, but you still take the risk. And instead of making one $200 million movie, try making 10 $20 million movies or 50 $4 million movies.”
If studio executives didn’t listen to Jefferson then, maybe they will now.
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