Two of 2024’s most expected movies, Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis and Todd Philips’s Joker: Folie a Deux might suggest Hollywood Blockbusters are not what they used to be.
Both movies had gathered huge expectations from fans and critics alike for very different reasons.
The case of Megalopolis is quite unique. Coppola’s passion project, as it has been described by critics and moviegoers alike, did not seem to resonate with 2024 audiences, which is evident by the movie’s performance at the box office, as will be understood later on.
This movie was almost 40 years in development and features Coppola’s commentary on many aspects of history, politics, urban planning, and other aspects of life. However, this seemingly was not enough for the director behind Apocalypse Now and The Godfather to captivate audiences once again.
Joker: Folie a Deux does not have these “artistic” issues. This movie was made thanks to Joker‘s success, which made DC and Warner Bros. a billion dollars. In 2019, this was unheard of for a comic book film. Both movies could not be more different, but they are similar in that they have been, at the very least, considered disappointing.
What went wrong for Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, and what did it mean for Joker?
We’ve already established that two of the year’s most hyped films have, at the very least, been disappointing, but what went wrong for each film? To understand this, we can turn to the voices of moviegoers because despite there being a wide consensus of the underwhelming nature of Megalopolis, there are still some who loved the movie.
Some users on the popular movie rating site, Letterboxd, have had quite a few things to say. Some made x-rated comments about the film, and why it was bad, and others simply said that, to get the movie, you have to “meet Coppola in his plain.” The only thing we know for a fact is that there is a consensus that the movie is quite insane for both good and bad reasons.
This can hardly be surprising, as the movie, being Coppola’s passion project 40 years in the making, was always meant to be more of an artistic expression than a conventional movie. Its performance at the box office, however, might put similar, more auteur and artistic projects to bed.
The film had a staggering budget of $136 million but was only able to make $4 million in its opening weekend after it was released in 2,000 theaters in North America. The underperformance of Megalopolis put pressure on the rest of the year’s blockbusters, like Joker, to show that people are still interested in watching more abstract movies.
Joker 2 was far from the first installment, and it disappointed critics and fans alike
The success of Joker (2019) was essentially grounded on the movie’s mix of Scorsese-esque tropes, with the movie largely pulling from Taxi Driver and 1982’s The King of Comedy, and mixing it with the most famous villain of all time.
This year’s Joker: Folie a Deux opted to change this approach radically and focus on a psychological exploration of the character through a variety of musical numbers, featuring pop star Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn.
At the moment, the film has a 39 percent rating from critics on rotten tomatoes and a surprisingly low 37 percent rating from audiences. Unlike the first movie, this one also has an extremely controversial ending, which everyone seems to despise, and several comments made by fans seem to absolutely despise the direction this sequel has gone in.
It has gotten so bad for Joker: Folie a Deux that the audience scores are even worse than some of DC’s most infamously bad projects. The film is currently behind the original Suicide Squad, Black Adam, and Green Lantern.
