“Joker” was released at boon times for comic book tentpoles, when the mere idea of superhero fatigue seemed laughable. But the genre has been proven to be less resilient in the post-pandemic era. “Joker: Folie à Deux” joins the ignominious trio of 2023’s “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” and “The Marvels” — all three are follow-ups to billion-dollar tentpoles that completely collapsed at the box office and became big money-losers. The sequel to 2018’s “Aquaman” tapped out with $439 million globally while the sequel to 2019’s “Captain Marvel” ended its run with just $206 million globally. Those misfires proved audiences will no longer show up simply because there’s a DC or Marvel logo in the title credits.
Because these kinds of movies have become blatent cash grabs. The market is oversaturated with the same formulistic plots reskinned with a different superhero. It’s insulting to consumers to assume high profile actors, flashy cgi, and a comic book character is enough to overlook poor storytelling.
“Joker” was released at boon times for comic book tentpoles, when the mere idea of superhero fatigue seemed laughable.
This seems way off base, too, as from my recollection, it was successful because it was the polar opposite of the typical DC or Marvel movie. It was super dark, wasn’t full of CGI portals, and didn’t have Mary Sue characters that were always perfect.
People were already tired of Marvel-esque superhero movies by this point. It was the same year Endgame came out, which was AFAIK, the last successful Marvel movie and the culmination of an 11 year story. Without that, it probably wouldn’t have done so well as even the actors were tired of their characters.
I ask myself sometimes if the movie was not called Joker but “The Clown” would it have done so well.
