WB Film Chiefs Still Stand by ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Despite Box Office Flop: ‘It Was Really Revisionist’

Warner Bros. film heads Pamela Abdy and Michael De Luca told TheWrap in an exclusive interview published Wednesday that they stand by “Joker: Folie à Deux,” despite the 2024 film’s reputation as a now-infamous box office bomb.

In a wide-ranging conversation with TheWrap founder and Editor-in-Chief Sharon Waxman, the Warner Bros. duo touched on the overwhelmingly negative critical and financial reception to “Folie à Deux,” which helped fuel rumors in early 2025 that they were on the brink of losing their highly coveted jobs running WB’s film output. Abdy, for her part, told TheWrap, “I really liked the movie. I still do.”

“It was really revisionist,” De Luca added, complimenting director Todd Phillips’ subversive comic book musical. “It may be that it was too revisionist for a global mainstream audience, but I thought that Todd and his screenwriting partner Scott (Silver) did the thing that most people making sequels don’t do, which is they decided to not repeat themselves. I do give them immense props for not repeating themselves, but it just turned out to not connect with the audience.”

Released five years after 2019’s “Joker,” “Folie à Deux” catches back up with Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck and follows him as he both faces trial for his crimes and begins to fall in love with a fellow Arkham State Hospital inmate, Harleen “Lee” Quinzel (Lady Gaga). Unlike the first “Joker,” which functions as a relatively straightforward, if surreal, crime film, “Folie à Deux” is a more ambitious and slippery cross between a jukebox musical and a courtroom drama.

The shift in tone and style did not land with either critics or casual moviegoers. Following its release in October 2024, the film went on to gross only $207 million at the worldwide box office. It fell massively short of the first film’s $1 billion box office gross, despite boasting a much larger reported budget of around $200 million. The sequel’s reviews were largely negative as well, and unlike the first “Joker,” which won two Oscars and was nominated for nine more, “Folie à Deux” was completely ignored at the Academy Awards.

Despite the film’s failure, De Luca told TheWrap he has learned not to let flops like it bother him too much. “You get a veteran’s thick skin,” the Warner Bros. film co-head explained. “I’ve certainly had flops in my history. I have been lucky enough to have hits in my history. But I try to remember something someone told me once: Everyone has flops, but not everyone has hits. You just try not to torture the ones that don’t work.”

Fortunately for De Luca and Abdy, they rebounded in 2025 with a stunning streak of box office hits like “A Minecraft Movie,” “Sinners,” “Superman” and “Weapons.” Both “Sinners” and “Weapons” have emerged as unlikely awards contenders in recent months. De Luca and Abdy also greenlit Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” which has thoroughly swept through this year’s awards season and is the current favorite to take home the Best Picture award at the Oscars in March.

The post WB Film Chiefs Still Stand by ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’ Despite Box Office Flop: ‘It Was Really Revisionist’ appeared first on TheWrap.