Joker 2 was Trash on Purpose. Let That Sink In.

Joker 2019 was a decent movie. It made a billion dollars. So, it was successful and it was received well critically, too. But a billion dollars isn't special anymore for a movie. Many others have already done it. The original Joker was successful because of its underlying message: it mocked the Far Left. I don't think audiences realized that was the message at the time (and I still don't think they do now). Fans of the first just think it's an origin story about a supervillain. 

But it was more than that. And that's what kept people coming back. But its 2024 follow-up didn't follow up with clever themes about politics or social issues. Instead, it opted to be a boring, empty musical. 

Joker 2 2024

I'm not a fan of musicals, at all. They're just not my bag. They should stay as Broadway shows for the people who like that stuff. Plus, having Joker 2 as a musical would have made more sense if the first one was a musical. At the very least, Arthur Fleck could have been an aspiring musician who dreamed of making it as a rock star. If they had laid the groundwork for the musical in the first film, then I could see the various musical numbers in the sequel. 

The musical nonsense was too much of a distortion from the original. That's why people didn't care for it. Plus, it was more or less a courtroom drama.

On one hand, it was very well shot and the acting, of course, was great. Joaquin Phoenix is guaranteed to provide a good performance. But Lady Gaga was a snooze. She's overrated as an actor and musician anyway, in my opinion.

via GIPHY

It's as if the writer/director Todd Phillips created Joker 2 as an insult to the fans of the first one. Perhaps Phillips didn't realize he made a mockery of the Far Left in the original. If he did, maybe he didn't think audiences would pick up on it. Joker 2 was a response to that to save his career. Hollywood is super WOKE. It always has been since the 1960s. And his Joker movie shit all over that WOKE nonsense. Joker 2 was made to insult those who enjoyed the first anti-WOKE movie. Phillips is defending his WOKE compadres in Hollywood. 

That's the answer right there.

But more importantly, is the ignorance of money. Joker 2 cost like $200 million dollars to make. Now double that for marketing expenses. That's nearly a half billion dollars Phillips spent of other people's money to make a movie that he likely knew would flop (but possibly save his career). 

And we're forgetting the dwindling state of movie theatres in America. It seems as if each day, cinemas are closing. You can thank Netflix and other streaming services for that. Hollywood studios don't want to put their movies in theatres anymore. They rush them away to Hulu or Netflix or Amazon Prime as fast as they can. These days, that's how studios make their money back. It's from the contracts they have with the streaming companies. 

So, when a huge movie like Joker 2 flops hard, it doesn't just affect the big wigs of Hollywood studios and let down audiences, it hurts movie theatre chains. Cineplexes depend on concession sales to make their money (ticket sales go to the studios). The more people that come to the theatre to see the movie, the more likely the theatre will see concession sales grow, which means the theatre will survive to have jobs for its employees.

What does it say to movie theatre chains who depend on big-budget movies to keep the lights on when the director makes a flop on purpose?