Woof, Joker: Folie À Deux rocks a D CinemaScore

As we've noted more than once, a film's CinemaScore — the letter grade given by the Las Vegas-based film marketing company that conducts surveys of film audiences — is rarely a clear measure of quality. There were very good or at least extremely interesting films (Darren Aronofsky). Mother! is a prime example of this), which have completely upset the metric due to scandalous cineplex-goers, and some boring films which have achieved the coveted A+. But CinemaScore Is A pretty good measure of whether early audiences were pissed right after leaving a theater, and so it's somewhat instructive to note this Todd Phillips Joker: film A Dex just received a rare “D” grade from the pollster, the lowest grade a comic book adaptation has ever received. (Take that, the box office disaster of 2015 Fantastic four!)

This wasn't a good review weekend for Phillips' sequel, with critics and fans in rare unison in a collective “Todd, what are you doing, man?” to the new film. Starring the returning Joaquin Phoenix and newcomer Lady Gaga, the film has enthralled Fleck/Flack from all quarters as it presents a strangely low-energy sequel to the shocking success of the 2019 original. The musical numbers were probably always going to be a sticking point, but beyond that it just sounds like Phillips made a film that wasn't interested in pleasing either those who recognized the virtues of his cautionary, Scorsese-esque tale of a society bringing about its own destruction through widespread neglect of its most vulnerable populations, or The people who just wanted to watch a clown dance on the stairs and murder people.

We'll have a full box office report on Monday, but for now this is what it looks like film A Dex will fall well short of projections as previews and Friday night screenings grossed just $20 million. It's also worth noting that the first book, even though it generates a lot of controversy about its subject matter, is worth mentioning joker At the time, the film received a CinemaScore of B+, meaning it at least created a buzz among the people who wanted to see it. This time, er, not so much.