Promotional material of Joker: Folie à Deux Photo: Courtesy of Maoyan

 
After international media outlets reported a lackluster performance for Joker: Folie à Deux (Joker 2) in North America, the much-anticipated sequel has premiered in the Chinese mainland on Wednesday. Chinese ticketing platform Maoyan shows that the musical film has earned 9.47 million yuan ($1.33 million) on its first premiere day, and has grossed a modest 12 million yuan as of Thursday afternoon.

“The box office performance has been modest so far, nothing particularly impressive, but yesterday was a working day, which can’t be compared with Fridays or weekends,” Maoyan’s data analyst Lai Li told the Global Times on Thursday.

He added that the current ticket purchasing demographic for the film is predominantly male audiences aged between 20 and 34. The film has also seen relatively better box office returns in first and second-tier cities, with ticket purchases in second-tier cities accounting for over 40 percent. 

The platform currently predicts a box office revenue exceeding 67 million yuan ($9.41 million) for the film.

According to Variety, the film, reportedly made with a budget of about 200 million US dollars, has been a significant focus for Warner Bros.’ marketing efforts. Warner Bros. issued a statement refuting reports that the film is set to lose the company a significant amount of money, calling such estimates by anonymous “insiders” or “rival executives” severely misleading. The company also emphasized the film will continue to screen in theaters worldwide, including “this week’s opening in China.”

Given the vast scale of China’s film market, Warner Bros.’ focus on the Chinese market is logical. However, whether Chinese audiences can accept and resonate with the Western character of “Joker” remains to be seen. Meanwhile, Chinese audiences have a limited appetite for Western musical films, Dong Ming, a film critic told the Global Times.

Promotional material of Joker: Folie à Deux Photo: Courtesy of Maoyan

Joker 2 will be released on online platforms on October 29, which, while helping Warner Bros. to recover some box office losses, will inevitably affect its theatrical release. The Chinese box office for Joker 2 may just be a drop in the bucket, according to Dong.

At one of the premieres, a Global Times reporter observed that most Chinese viewers seemed to be fans of the character “Joker”, holding high expectations for his performance in the sequel. However, reality appears to have fallen short of expectations, as the second installment has been adapted into a musical psychological thriller film.

On China’s viewing website Douban, Joker: Folie à Deux currently has a rating of only 5.9/10, a significant drop from the first film’s 8.7. 

Chinese film enthusiasts took on Chinese social media and have jokingly given the movie the nickname -- “Ha ha, Land,” a reference to the film’s memorable “ha ha” laughter of the protagonist Joker and the 2016 American musical romantic comedy-drama film La La Land.

After the premiere, most Chinese moviegoers shared with the Global Times that they were expecting “a mad” Joker but got stuck watching “Arthur Fleck.”

Most Chinese fans came to see the sequel after hearing about the big success of the 2019 Joker that grossed $1.078 billion. Several audience members told the Global Times that they expected the Joker 2 to continue in the style of the previous one, with the down-to-earth hero “Joker” following many thrilling plotlines and even hoping to see upgraded explosive scenes that would establish a sort of Joker universe.

However, the sequel turned out to be of a completely different style. Additionally, the portrayal of Harley Quinn by Lady Gaga was seen as “pitiful.” The audience had hoped she could become an independent character, just like the Joker but ended up simply being “a tool to advance the plot.”

On the other hand, some female fans expressed that after watching the movie, they understood the loneliness within the Joker’s heart, a lonely soul full of emotions, an aspect that made the character more rounded. 

Meanwhile, many moviegoers admired director Todd Phillips’s courage.

“Joker 2 is brave: with such a good reputation and honors from the first installment, it completely abandons the best commercial direction for a sequel given by big data and takes a different path to make a more independent film. It’s a bit arrogant, but it deserves attention,” one Chinese netizen commented on Douban.