Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn and Joaquin Phoenix as Joker in Joker: Folie à Deux (2024), Warner Bros. Pictures
Science fiction novelist Isaac Young explained why he believes Joker: Folie à Deux bombed at the box office.
Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn in Joker: Folie à Deux (2024), Warner Bros. Pictures
Joker: Folie à Deux only managed to gross $37.8 million domestically and another $81 million internationally for a global gross of $118 million.
The domestic gross was far lower than even the already lowered predictions going into the weekend. Box Office Theory predicted the film would gross between $44 million and $57 million while it noted that traditional tracking had the film grossing between $50 million and $60 million.
Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck in Joker: Folie à Deux (2024), Warner Bros. Pictures
READ: ‘Joker: Folie À Deux’s’ Opening Weekend Box Office Tracking Drops 44% Following Mixed Reviews And Poor Early Pre-Sales
Box office analyst OMB Reviews noted, “The film [is] not doing well, not holding well either. And I suspect after a very, very, very poor opening weekend in comparison to the estimates going into the weekend this film will probably have a catastrophic drop in week two.”
He also noted the film’s message in its third act “essentially is a giant middle finger to anyone that not only was a fan of the first film, but also anyone that was just a fan of Joker in general.”
Novelist Isaac Young explained this poor performance and specifically the film’s messaging in the third act in a number of posts on X. First, he posted, “This is your daily reminder to never get invested in any Hollywood movie even if it’s ironically. The Left will somersault over themselves and pour hundreds of millions of dollars into contradicting you.”
This is your daily reminder to never get invested in any Hollywood movie even if it’s ironically. The Left will somersault over themselves and pour hundreds of millions of dollars into contradicting you pic.twitter.com/S3gu1ogaGc
— Isaac Young (@HariSel57511397) October 7, 2024
Next, he added, “Understand Hollywood behaves more like a Reddit poster than a professional entertainment industry. They will gladly shoot themselves in the foot if only to get one over you.”
Understand Hollywood behaves more like a Reddit poster than a professional entertainment industry. They will gladly shoot themselves in the foot if only to get one over you. https://t.co/56AMZzPErv
— Isaac Young (@HariSel57511397) October 7, 2024
From there, he shared a video primarily focusing on Star Trek, but he also noted it applies to Joker as well. He prefaced the video writing, “Anything that does not immediately serve the Left in entertainment must be subverted.”
In the video, he detailed, “The problem is that there is no longer anything behind Hollywood’s politics, only power and those who wield it. There is no religious piety, no transcendental belief, no ideas of right and wrong, no vision of the future, no philosophy, no history, no metaphysics, no style nor substance, no reckoning with God, or Hell, or hope, or fear, or love, or death. Not one honest belief that is anything other than, ‘You’re a racist and so we deserve to be in charge.’”
Some thoughts on woke culture. Topic was Star Trek, but this applies to explaining why the new Joker movie was intentionally terrible. Anything that does not immediately serve the Left in entertainment must be subverted. pic.twitter.com/b22BmJ2osG
— Isaac Young (@HariSel57511397) October 7, 2024
“The great gods of identity politics only exist to serve the Left’s material desires and will incarnate to whatever form that best serves that task,” he continued. “This is why every historical figure was secretly gay and also black as well. This is why women eternally oppressed by the patriarchy, but men are also women. This is why no how hard conservatives yell, ‘Hypocrites!’ no leftist will ever change his/her/its mind about anything.”
He later added, “It can’t say anything substantive because that would pose a threat to itself. To make any claim about the world that does not immediately serve the vulgar desires of its creators is to create a standard which might be turned on them, an alternate view with which someone might voice their objections.”
A scene from Starship Troopers (1997), TriStar Pictures
He then rhetorically questioned, “Why is it that at every opportunity the Left destroy anything of beauty, grace, and higher purpose? Because those things condemn the Left by the fact of their own existence.”
“Modern artists must swear their souls to towing the eternal party line, which itself is just narcissism. That or they make their work so braindead that it couldn’t possibly be a threat to anyone. This is why the woke will never produce a great work of art. To do so would require believing in something beyond power, beyond politics. And the woke cannot conceptualize anything except through politics,” he stated.
Charlie Vickers as Sauron in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024), Amazon MGM Studios
Still later in the video, he observed, “This is something I see a lot of people still struggle with. They have a hard time conceptualizing stories as politics, as a means of punishing your real world enemies. They see the abuses on paper and complain about the desecration of their stories, and then fail to realize that the desecration was the point.”
“They think Hollywood still exists to tell stories,” he opined. “That’s not what Hollywood is for if it ever was. Hollywood exists to reward its friends and punishes its enemies. And its products are emblematic of that fact. Hollywood does not exist to entertain you. It is an organ of a greater international apparatus that has declared war on native populations of the West.”
(Center): Vernestra Rwoh (Rebecca Henderson) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©.
He then concluded, “What has happened to Star Trek and every media franchise is not the result of incompetence though today’s writers are thoroughly incompetent. It’s the result of a seething artistic class that wishes to pervert all film, TV, and literary achievement for the sake of applauding themselves and humiliating their enemies. And in this task they have unequivocally succeeded.”
“The only thing to do, the only way to win is to step back and let them fester on the dung hill they have created for themselves,” he finished.
“Vaulting Ambition” — Episode 112 — Pictured: Michelle Yeoh as Philippa Georgiou of the CBS All Access series STAR TREK: DISCOVERY. Photo Cr: Ben Mark Holzberg/CBS é 2017 CBS Interactive. All Rights Reserved.
He truncated much of his point by sharing an image from Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight film, where Joker burns a pile of cash to send a message, and wrote, “This is the Left every time they make a woke flop, and YouTube critics cope that it loses money. And yes, they will go so far as to rape the Joker just to prove a point.”
He added in another post, “If this didn’t make Conservatives wake up, I honestly don’t know what will. Nothing is sacred. There’s no line the Left won’t ever cross to humiliate the Right.”
If this didn’t make Conservatives wake up, I honestly don’t know what will.
Nothing is sacred. There’s no line the Left won’t ever cross to humiliate the Right. https://t.co/q1osyTYdgq pic.twitter.com/O4NCfIE1ia
— Isaac Young (@HariSel57511397) October 7, 2024
