Joker, Folie à Deux, the highly anticipated sequel to the hit film Joker, has experienced a drastic drop in box office earnings in North America.
The film, which debuted at the top spot last weekend with a whopping $40 million, plummeted to just $7.1 million this weekend, marking an unprecedented 80% decrease in revenue.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, this sharp decline sets a new record for the steepest drop for a comic-book movie. Joker: Folie à Deux was dethroned by indie horror film Terrifier 3, which raked in an estimated $18.2 million over the weekend.
The animated film The Wild Robot secured the second spot with $13.4 million, pushing Joker: Folie à Deux to third place.
Despite the mixed reviews from film critics, with some praising its bleak and daring narrative while others criticize it as depressingly dull and plodding, the sequel failed to maintain its initial box office success. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice also slipped to fourth place with a modest $7 million in earnings.
In fifth place on the North American box office charts is the comedy-drama Piece by Piece, a unique film that utilizes Lego animation and boasts an impressive voice cast including Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake, and Busta Rhymes.
Meanwhile, another film generating buzz is The Apprentice, a biopic about Donald Trump, which entered the top ten list at number ten with earnings of $1.6 million.
Despite garnering positive reviews at its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, the film faced backlash from the former president, who labeled it as “garbage”, and “pure fiction”, and accused Hollywood elites of election interference.
The film chronicles Trump’s rise as a young property developer in 1970s and 80s New York and includes controversial scenes that have sparked controversy.
Trump recently slammed the film as a “politically disgusting hatchet job” on his Truth Social app, criticizing its portrayal of him.