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UPDATED: Warner Bros/DC and Todd Phillips' Joker: Folie à Deux clearly didn't generate the hoped-for excitement at the turnstiles at the opening of this session.

While the Joaquin Phoenix/Lady Gaga-starrer grossed $81.1 million from 76 markets at the international box office, within projections for this first wave, its domestic box office has tanked. In both cases, most of the critical and social scores are downright poor. Its global debut was $121.1 million, with Japan and China still to launch, but no one is expecting a big multiple. (On a more positive note for WB, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has surpassed $400 million worldwide this frame – see below.)

Phillips’ 2019 Joker opened to $139 million offshore in comparable markets, following the heat of its Venice Golden Lion win. The sequel was already somewhat wearing face paint after its own world premiere in Venice last month resulted in low critical and social reviews. Note that the first Joker opened to mediocre critical reviews but went on to become an Oscar-winning $1 billion+ global box office phenomenon. This film, unfortunately, won’t be able to match that. It’s been suggested that if the Folie à Deux hadn’t gone to Venice and had simply opened on its own, it could have had a bigger debut.