‘Joker 2’s Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score Is Shockingly Low

Joker: Folie à Deux’s scores with critics and audiences are no laughing matter.

The first Joker was a critical and commercial smash. It was certainly divisive in some circles, but it was a huge hit by any measure. It grossed more than $1 billion worldwide, had many ardent defenders among film critics, and even won some Academy Awards.

If I was a betting man, I would not put money on any of those three things occurring again.

So far at least, Joker: Folie à Deux is proving to be extremely unpopular with both critics and audiences. In fact, as of this writing, critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes have given the film the exact same score: 36.

For sake of comparison, the first Joker — which also starred Joaquin Phoenix and was also co-written and directed by Todd Phillips — currently holds a solid 68 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, and a very strong 89 percent from verified fans on the site.

To make matters even worse, The Hollywood Reporter says Joker: Folie à Deux is not off to a hot start at the box office. It grossed roughly $7 million in Thursday night previews, compared to the $13.3 million Joker earned in previews — in other words, a little more than than half its total. While early predictions had Folie à Deux grossing somewhere around $70 million in its opening weekend — which would already be a stepped down from Joker’s $96.2 million opening weekend back in 2019 — now it could be more like $50 or $60 million.

READ MORE: Our Full Review of Joker: Folie à Deux Is Here

Back to that Rotten Tomatoes audience score (which the site now refers to as the “Popcornmeter”). Its 36 is a pitifully low number; audience scores tend to rate far higher than the critics’ score, even when the movie is not a hit with reviewers. For example, the much-reviled Joss Whedon cut of Justice League got a 67 audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Suicide Squad got a 58 audience score. Even Green Lantern — arguably the least-liked of all the big-budget DC movies — got a 45. Yikes.

Joker: Folie à Deux is currently scoring more than 20 points below that. And scores for big movies tend to start high and slowly drift lower. Unless something drastic happens soon, this really could wind up as one of the worst-scored DC movies in history.

Joker: Folie à Deux is playing in theaters now.