Joker 2 Holds A Batman Claim-To-Fame That No Other Film Will Probably Ever Beat

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The Joker/Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) dips Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga) in Joker: Folie à Deux.

John Dodge is an MTV Writer for CBR who specializes in movies, television, comics, and pop culture. He has a deep knowledge of franchises like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Marvel, and DC Comics, along with a passion for indie and horror titles. An expert on obscure productions from the ’80s and ’90s, John is known for his encyclopedic recall of cult classics like Beetleborgs.

Joker: Folie à Deux sets a new record for the wider Batman franchise that might never be beat, at least not any time soon.

Per fan account the_whar on Twitter, 2024's Joker: Folie à Deux has officially set a new record for the overarching Batman feature film franchise, albeit not one that many films would hope to attain. As of the time of writing, Joker: Folie à Deux is the lowest rated Batman (or Batman adjacent) film of all time according to review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Joker: Folie à Deux currently holds a meager 31% "Fresh" rating as averaged across 370 critical reviews, which matches the film's 31% audience-generated approval rating on the platform.

The previous lowest rated Batman film of all time, according to Rotten Tomatoes, was 1995's Batman Forever directed by the late, great Joel Schumacher and starring Val Kilmer, Nicole Kidman, Chris O'Donnell, Jim Carrey, and Tommy Lee Jones. Batman Forever currently holds a 41% "Fresh" rating via Rotten Tomatoes, as averaged across 73 verified critical reviews of the film. For comparison, Batman Foever holds a 33% "Popcornmeter" score, as averaged across more than 250,000 verified user-submitted reviews.

Directed by Todd Phillips from a screenplay co-written alongside Scott Silver, Joker: Folie à Deux brought back Joaquin Phoenix in a reprisal of his role as Arthur Fleck, better known as the titular villain of 2019's Joker. The follow-up film played out as both a legal drama and jukebox musical rather than the tense, biting thriller that its predecessor had been. Alongside Phoenix, Joker: Folie à Deux stars Lady Gaga as Harley "Lee" Quinzel, who in this version of the story is one of Arthur's fellow inmates at Arkham State Hospital, where the two form a dangerous obsession with one another that quickly leads to a fiery romance.

How Did Critics and Audiences Respond to Joker: Folie à Deux?

Arthur Fleck is sitting in court with Harley behind him in Joker Folie a Deux.

Upon its release, Joker: Folie à Deux was widely derided by both critics and audiences, many of whom pointed towards its relatively stagnant story as more than enough to outweigh its objectively fantastic production values. Despite its strengths, Joker: Folie à Deux received widespread criticism for its underwhelming musical numbers and jarring tone despite maintaining the underlying sense of nihilism that ran to the very core of Joker. To make matters worse, such takes on the film drastically reduced its impact at the box office, with Joker: Folie à Deux only managing to bring in $207.5 million against a production budget of around $200 million during its original theatrical run.

Joker: Folie à Deux is streaming on HBO Max.