One of the most polarizing movies of 2024 was Joker: Folie à Deux. In the sequel to 2019’s Joker, Lady Gaga stars as Harley “Lee” Quinzel, the complicated love interest of Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck. Folie à Deux received terrible reviews and tanked at the box office.
In an interview with Elle, Gaga opened up about the failure of Joker 2.
“People just sometimes don’t like some things,” Gaga said. “It’s that simple. And I think to be an artist, you have to be willing for people to sometimes not like it. And you keep going even if something didn’t connect in the way that you intended.”
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Gaga added, “When that makes its way into your life, that can be hard to get control of. It’s part of the mayhem.”
Two years after the events of Joker, Arthur is now a patient at Arkham State Hospital and awaits trial for the murders he committed in the previous film. At Arkham, Arthur falls in love with Lee, who worships Joker. Joker: Folie à Deux features several musical elements and dance numbers to showcase Arthur’s true self.
2019’s Joker was an undeniable success, grossing over $1 billion and garnering 11 Oscar nominations, winning two: Best Actor (Phoenix) and Best Original Score (Hildur Guðnadóttir).
Five years later, Todd Phillips’ sequel came nowhere close to achieving the success of Joker. Joker: Folie à Deux earned a “D” CinemaScore, the lowest ever for a comic book movie. Folie à Deux only grossed $207 worldwide on a budget of nearly $200 million. Warner Bros. reportedly lost between $150 million and $200 million.
Joker: Folie à Deux is now streaming on Max.