‘Terrifier 3’ Mutilating ‘Joker 2’ at Box Office Is Good for Warner Bros.
To Warner Bros., there is nothing funny about the box office trajectory of “Joker: Folie à Deux,” which is crashing out in theaters after two weekends.
After opening to less than $38 million, the sequel to 2019’s billion-dollar, Oscar-winning spectacle fell over 80% in its second weekend, making it a possibility the pricey picture won’t even reach the $67 million domestic haul of “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” over the summer, Warners’ other big-budget R-rated stumble this year. For theatergoers wishing for more adult-driven films at the studio level, this is a disastrous outcome.
However, the film that drove audiences away from “Joker 2” in its second weekend is fulfilling the role of a superhero for such audiences.
“Terrifier 3,” the third entry in a killer-clown series so gruesomely violent it skips the MPA’s rating process altogether, opened to just under $19 million last weekend. “Terrifier 3” delivered such a crushing blow to the head of “Joker 2” it grossed as much as “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” Warners’ more family friendly and financially successful horror effort, in the latter’s sixth weekend.
Budgeted at a lean $2 million, as opposed to the hundreds of millions spent on “Joker 2” and “Furiosa,” “Terrifier 3” is an instant financial success joining the likes of Neon’s “Longlegs” this year that spits in the face of major studios’ often cautious approach to horror. “Terrifier 3” got into theaters just before Paramount’s “Smile 2” this Friday, which is the sequel to 2022’s R-rated big grosser.
While PG-13 “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” benefited heavily from the legacy it lived up to as a franchise entry, as did Paramount’s “A Quiet Place: Day One” and Disney’s “Alien: Romulus,” cheaper horror films with the same rating have barely made a splash this year.
Films such as Universal’s “Night Swim,” Sony’s “Afraid” and Lionsgate’s “Imaginary” — all from horror connoisseur Blumhouse — opened to less than $12 million at best. Sony’s Screen Gems label, also known for horror, saw “Tarot” end its domestic run with the same amount to which “Terrifier 3” opened. Likewise, Lionsgate’s reboot of “The Strangers,” its top-grossing film of the year so far and the first of a trilogy, opened under $12 million.
Killer clowns being a box office draw isn’t a new phenomenon. After all, Warners released “Joker” after 2017’s “It” became a smash success, so much so that a little film named “Terrifier” from 2016 began to gain traction in the digital space, culminating in its first sequel two years ago.
But audiences’ clear preference for hard-R horror as of late comes at just the right time for Warners.
Despite its complicity in franchise fatigue thanks to the DC Extended Universe, which ended with diminishing returns for several films last year, Warners’ slate of films over the next two years resembles that of a bygone era.
While flagship DC IP is getting a soft reboot under the leadership of James Gunn, most of the films put together under studio chiefs Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca are original efforts from a mix of established directors and newer talent. Most important, many of them are already or likely to be rated R and come from directors whose films have done well at the box office, such as “Parasite” director Bong Joon Ho and Zach Cregger of “Barbarian” fame, whose script for “Weapons” triggered a bidding war.
Much is driving that strategy, namely the studio losing Christopher Nolan to Universal after “Tenet.” Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” his first R-rated effort since 2002’s “Insomnia,” went on to gross nearly $1 billion and won best picture at the Oscars.
Still, the bad performances of “Joker 2” and “Furiosa” — not to mention the first of Kevin Costner’s epic “Horizon” films, which are mostly self-financed by the actor — threatened to darken the clouds over Warner Bros. Discovery’s big picture.
WBD’s C-suite doesn’t mince words when an expensive project fails, as was the case earlier in 2024 when CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels came down hard on the video game division during an earnings call, blaming “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” for a $200 million loss after he and CEO David Zaslav spent 2023 raving about the gaming industry after the success of “Hogwarts Legacy.”
Were it not for “Terrifier 3,” the “Joker” sequel would be fizzling out under the shadow of Universal’s animated “The Wild Robot,” creating a scenario where Zaslav may have panicked at the slate ahead for Warners and ordered less intense cuts for many of those films.
Instead, the takeaway from “Joker 2” is the consequence of straying from what worked in its predecessor — namely a penchant for violence and dark themes, as opposed to the musical whimsy of the sequel. If Zaslav wasn’t aware of what cheap films such as the “Terrifier” series are capable of financially, he certainly is now, and that can only benefit his studio’s turn back to adults.
After opening to less than $38 million, the sequel to 2019’s billion-dollar, Oscar-winning spectacle fell over 80% in its second weekend, making it a possibility the pricey picture won’t even reach the $67 million domestic haul of “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” over the summer, Warners’ other big-budget R-rated stumble this year. For theatergoers wishing for more adult-driven films at the studio level, this is a disastrous outcome.
However, the film that drove audiences away from “Joker 2” in its second weekend is fulfilling the role of a superhero for such audiences.
“Terrifier 3,” the third entry in a killer-clown series so gruesomely violent it skips the MPA’s rating process altogether, opened to just under $19 million last weekend. “Terrifier 3” delivered such a crushing blow to the head of “Joker 2” it grossed as much as “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” Warners’ more family friendly and financially successful horror effort, in the latter’s sixth weekend.
Budgeted at a lean $2 million, as opposed to the hundreds of millions spent on “Joker 2” and “Furiosa,” “Terrifier 3” is an instant financial success joining the likes of Neon’s “Longlegs” this year that spits in the face of major studios’ often cautious approach to horror. “Terrifier 3” got into theaters just before Paramount’s “Smile 2” this Friday, which is the sequel to 2022’s R-rated big grosser.
While PG-13 “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” benefited heavily from the legacy it lived up to as a franchise entry, as did Paramount’s “A Quiet Place: Day One” and Disney’s “Alien: Romulus,” cheaper horror films with the same rating have barely made a splash this year.
Films such as Universal’s “Night Swim,” Sony’s “Afraid” and Lionsgate’s “Imaginary” — all from horror connoisseur Blumhouse — opened to less than $12 million at best. Sony’s Screen Gems label, also known for horror, saw “Tarot” end its domestic run with the same amount to which “Terrifier 3” opened. Likewise, Lionsgate’s reboot of “The Strangers,” its top-grossing film of the year so far and the first of a trilogy, opened under $12 million.
Killer clowns being a box office draw isn’t a new phenomenon. After all, Warners released “Joker” after 2017’s “It” became a smash success, so much so that a little film named “Terrifier” from 2016 began to gain traction in the digital space, culminating in its first sequel two years ago.
But audiences’ clear preference for hard-R horror as of late comes at just the right time for Warners.
Despite its complicity in franchise fatigue thanks to the DC Extended Universe, which ended with diminishing returns for several films last year, Warners’ slate of films over the next two years resembles that of a bygone era.
While flagship DC IP is getting a soft reboot under the leadership of James Gunn, most of the films put together under studio chiefs Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca are original efforts from a mix of established directors and newer talent. Most important, many of them are already or likely to be rated R and come from directors whose films have done well at the box office, such as “Parasite” director Bong Joon Ho and Zach Cregger of “Barbarian” fame, whose script for “Weapons” triggered a bidding war.
Much is driving that strategy, namely the studio losing Christopher Nolan to Universal after “Tenet.” Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” his first R-rated effort since 2002’s “Insomnia,” went on to gross nearly $1 billion and won best picture at the Oscars.
Still, the bad performances of “Joker 2” and “Furiosa” — not to mention the first of Kevin Costner’s epic “Horizon” films, which are mostly self-financed by the actor — threatened to darken the clouds over Warner Bros. Discovery’s big picture.
WBD’s C-suite doesn’t mince words when an expensive project fails, as was the case earlier in 2024 when CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels came down hard on the video game division during an earnings call, blaming “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” for a $200 million loss after he and CEO David Zaslav spent 2023 raving about the gaming industry after the success of “Hogwarts Legacy.”
Were it not for “Terrifier 3,” the “Joker” sequel would be fizzling out under the shadow of Universal’s animated “The Wild Robot,” creating a scenario where Zaslav may have panicked at the slate ahead for Warners and ordered less intense cuts for many of those films.
Instead, the takeaway from “Joker 2” is the consequence of straying from what worked in its predecessor — namely a penchant for violence and dark themes, as opposed to the musical whimsy of the sequel. If Zaslav wasn’t aware of what cheap films such as the “Terrifier” series are capable of financially, he certainly is now, and that can only benefit his studio’s turn back to adults.