“Joker: Folie à Deux” Beat in Its Second Weekend by Another Clown Movie, “Terrifier 3”, at Box Office

The sequel to 'Joker' brought in about $7 million over its second weekend, compared to slasher 'Terrifier 3' earning $18.3 million in its opening weekend

Joker: Folie à Deux has been beaten by another clown-led film in its second weekend at the domestic box office.

The musical sequel starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga pulled in just over $7 million in North America, according to multiple outlets including The Guardian and The Hollywood Reporter.

Meanwhile, the gory slasher Terrifier 3 — which opened Friday, Oct. 11, and stars David Howard Thornton once again as the sinister Art the Clown — earned $18.3 million, per Box Office Mojo.

The long-awaited Joker: Folie à Deux has been panned by critics and received a D rating from CinemaScore, the lowest-ever score for a comic-book movie. (By comparison, the 2019 Joker, which won Phoenix, 49, an Oscar for Best Actor, got a B+ on CinemaScore.)

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The first Joker film went on to be a blockbuster, earning over $1 billion at the global box office. Folie à Deux, though, had an opening weekend that came lower than industry predictions: $40 million at the domestic box office, per multiple outlets. (The original Joker set an October record in 2019 when it opened to $96.2 million domestically.)

Folie à Deux has thus far raked in $165.3 million globally, per Box Office Mojo. The budget for the sequel was reportedly $200 million, though director Todd Phillips has called that estimate "absurd."

The new film is a musical and tracks Arthur Fleck's (Phoenix) murder trial after the events of the first film. Gaga, 38, joins the cast as Lee, a.k.a. Harley Quinn.

Director Phillips, 53, who also made the first Joker, has spoken in various interviews about taking risks with the sequel and subverting expectations.

He also recently told The Hollywood Reporter he doesn't plan on making a third Joker film: "I feel like my time in the DC Universe was these two films."

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Terrifier 3 earned a B grade on CinemaScore, and marks the third movie in Damien Leone's horror-slasher franchise since the original was released in 2016.

The series follows the victims of the sadistic Art the Clown (Thornton, 44), and the movies are independently financed by Cineverse and its subsidiary Bloody Disgusting, the horror genre-themed website and production company.

Terrifier 3 has been buzzed about as of late for its fresh new kills — to the point where film distributor Signature Entertainment wrote on X that staff at a U.K. movie theater "reported 11 people walking out and 1 person vomiting" during a premiere screening earlier this month.

Separately, LADbible reported that 11 audience members walked out during the movie and that nine of those people left during the film's opening scene. The outlet also claimed that one audience member vomited, citing the public-relations team working on Terrifier 3.

Filmmaker Leone, 42, shared that article in a post on his X account in which he wrote that he "did personally witness some crazy stuff at this UK screening."

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