 "Hollywood writer-director Paul Schrader says he couldn't survive 'Joker 2' for more than 20 minutes: 'I don't like them as actors, I came back and...'")
Hollywood writer-director Paul Schrader says he couldn’t survive “Joker: Folie a Deux” for more than 20 minutes.
The “Taxi Driver” scriptwriter said the sequel, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga and directed by Todd Phillips, was a really bad musical.
The film, a sequel to the 2019 movie, has received negative reviews and stands to lose between USD 150 million to USD 200 million at the box office, according to Variety.
Paul said, “I saw about 10 or 15 minutes of it. I left, bought something, came back, saw another 10 minutes. That was enough.”
He then went on to call the film as “a really bad musical” and added, “I don’t like either of those people. I don’t like them as actors. I don’t like them as characters. I don’t like the whole thing. I mean, those are people who, if they came to your house, you’d slip out the back door.”
The choices on the movie marquee this weekend included Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker, a film about Donald Trump, a “Saturday Night Live” origin story and even Pharrell Williams as a Lego. In the end, all were trounced by an ax-wielding clown.
“Terrifier 3,” a gory, low-budget slasher from the small distributor Cineverse, topped the weekend box office with $18.3 million, according to estimates Sunday. The film, a sequel to 2022’s “Terrifier 2” ($15 million worldwide in ticket sales), brings back the murderous Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) and lets him loose, under the guise of Santa, at a Christmas party.
That “Terrifier 3” could notably overperform expectations and leapfrog both major studios and awards hopefuls was only possible due to the disaster of “ Joker: Folie à Deux .” After Todd Phillips’ “Joker” sequel, starring Phoenix and Lady Gaga, got off to a much-diminished start last weekend (and a “D” CinemaScore from audiences), the Warner Bros. release fell a staggering 81% in its second weekend, bringing in just $7.1 million.