‘Can u change it to an F’: A sequel shunned by James Gunn is setting ‘records’, while DC Studios quietly yearns for a multiverse-altering event to undo this madness 

Joker: Folie à Deux was Warner Bros. Discovery’s biggest bet in 2024 to capitalize on DC characters. However, the sequel’s record-breaking CinemaScore shows the movie is unprecedented in all the wrong ways.

Warner Bros. Discovery greenlighted a sequel to 2019’s Joker after the first movie did the unthinkable and crossed the barrier of $1 billion at the box office despite its R-rating and a modest $50 million budget. A sequel seemed like an easy bet for executives, but the excitement surrounding Joker: Folie à Deux has slowly faded over the months preceding its commercial release. Some fans were not happy with the musical direction director Todd Phillips had taken, while others were reasonably concerned about the poor reception of the movie by critics.

Even though Joker: Folie à Deux leaves some hopeful loose threads for a threequel to follow, things were not looking good for Warner Bros. Discovery. The sequel cost four times the first movie’s budget, and it’s unlikely it would ever near the same billionaire results as Joker. However, things are even worse than Warner Bros. Discovery could dread, as Joker: Folie à Deux is one of the worst-rated movies in history, according to CinemaScore.

What does a D CinemaScore mean for Joker: Folie à Deux?

For those who need a recap, CinemaScore is a market research firm that surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences. In other words, this score is made exclusively of the average viewer’s perception, free from review-bombing crowds or professional criticism. As such, CinemaScore is an excellent thermometer for measuring fans’ appreciation of any given movie and how much money it will haul in the weeks after its release.

Since CinemaScore company has provided these grades since 1978, any new release must do incredibly well or poorly to break any record. Nevertheless, that’s precisely what happened to Joker: Folie à Deux, as its D rating in CinemaScore puts the sequel in a league of its own, but not in the way DC Studios would have liked.

To put this into perspective, even widely panned superhero films like 2015’s Fantastic Four managed to scrape by with a C- CinemaScore. That film, unanimously considered a critical and commercial failure, now looks like a relative success compared to Joker: Folie à Deux. 

To make matters even worse, Folie à Deux has dethroned some of the biggest bombs of 2024. Borderlands and Megalopolis received a slightly higher D+ grade, and they both failed spectacularly at the box office. As if that didn’t already speak volumes, Joker: Folie à Deux is now the first movie with a budget exceeding $100 million to receive such a poor rating from audiences. Such a negative audience response will most likely lead to a sharp drop-off in ticket sales. So, despite a healthy opening weekend, Joker: Folie à Deux can still flop.

With that in mind, it’s curious to notice how James Gunn and Peter Safran didn’t want to put the DC Studios seal on Joker: Folie à Deux – the new studio’s logo is absent from the sequel’s credits. The movie was already in production before the duo was tasked with rebooting the DC cinematic universe, which could explain why DC Studios distanced themselves from Folie à Deux. However, the same is true about The Penguin, a critically acclaimed TV show that Reeves began to develop after the success of 2022’s The Batman. Yet, Gunn quickly praised it on social media, underlining how it is the first production bearing the DC Studios seal.

The joke becomes even funnier when we consider Gunn had seen Folie à Deux before it hit theaters. So, if he chose to keep some distance from Phillips’ sequel and DC Studios, that’s a clear sign he didn’t trust the final product. Who can blame him? From critics to the audience, no one has a smile on their faces after watching Joker: Folie à Deux.