DC Studios co-chiefs James Gunn and Peter Safran were absent from the ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ pre-premiere screening at TCL Chinese Theater. According to insiders, the two didn’t attend the event because Todd Phillips “wanted nothing to do with DC” during the production.
Although Gunn supported the ‘Joker’ sequel based on well-known comic book villain on social media, Phillips kept his distance from the DC Universe. While the movie opened with a classic Hollywood animated title-card sequence, it seemingly featured no DC Studios logo.
A source recently implied to Variety that the project failed at the box office due to this disconnection with the home company and source material.
“If the first movie was about some down-on-his-luck, mentally-ill guy in a downtrodden city, it makes maybe $150 [million] worldwide. Not a billion,” the insider said. “People showed up because that guy was Joker.”
A DC spokesperson responded to the talks, explaining that Gunn didn’t show up at the event on September 30 because he was busy with the ‘Peacemaker’ filming in Atlanta and Safran was sick that day. A Warner Bros. representative noted that the DC logo appeared at the end of the movie while Phillips kept his silence on the matter.
‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ struggled during its opening weekend, bringing in just $40 million, far below expectations. So far, it has earned $116.5 million worldwide against its $200 million budget and received only a 33% approval rating from 300 critics on Rotten Tomatoes. (The story’s ending especially drew criticism although the director defended it in a recent chat.)
The sequel’s results sharply contrasted the original film’s success. 2019’s ‘Joker’ made about $40 million on its first day and went on to gross over $1 billion, becoming the second highest-grossing R-rated movie ever.
