Your Jaws Will Be On the Floor After Learning Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga’s Whopping Salaries for Joker 2
- Joker's success convinced everyone that a sequel would also perform well.
- Both Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga earned eight-figure salaries.
- Joker 2 could have performed well if the studio had made wiser decisions.
Some movies are better left alone, but studio bosses knew better than to pass up the opportunity to make a sequel to a billion-dollar movie like Joker. Not to mention that they had phenomenal actors like Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga onboard. Never in their wildest dreams, could anyone have imagined that the sequel would turn out this way.
Both movies have made history in their own ways. While the first was a critical and commercial success, the second one turned out to be a box-office bomb with a D CinemaScore which makes it the first comic book movie ever to receive this rating. This will obviously only hurt Warner Bros.’ financial turnover because Phoenix and Gaga already got their paychecks, and massive ones at that.
Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga Got Big Paychecks for Joker 2
Joker is undoubtedly one of the greatest supervillains to have been adapted for the big screens. When actors like Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger have played a character, the shoes to be filled are big. Luckily, Joaquin Phoenix understood the assignment.
The outcome was the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time (the position was taken by Deadpool & Wolverine recently). Besides the other accolades, it won two Academy Awards out of the eleven it was nominated for.
The temptation for a sequel was strong, so even though Todd Phillips and Phoenix initially wanted to do a Broadway show, they gave in eventually. At the time, the ball seemed to be in their court, so they did what any sane person would do: make a sequel. Fans were obviously delighted by the news and were eager to see which direction the story would take.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, when Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy took over as co-heads of Warner Bros.’ movie studio in early June 2021, they went along with the plan laid out by their predecessor Toby Emmerich for Joker 2. Phillips and Phoenix had already signed on the dotted lines for $20 million paydays each. It was only a matter of weeks before Gaga signed on for $12 million.
The net budget set for the film was $190 million, more than three times the $55 million budget of the first film. To say that the decision to inflate the budget has backfired would be an understatement. Had the budget been less, the chances of the film breaking even would have been more.
Could Joker: Folie à Deux Have Avoided Its Doomed Fate?
Joker: Folie à Deux does not lack great performances nor was it directed by an amateur filmmaker. Yet, the audience’s reaction to it has turned out to be even worse than some of the most disappointing DC movies in recent memory. For instance, Black Adam, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.
The question that arises now is- could the movie have avoided this fate? The answer is probably yes because the movie did not get test screenings to preserve spoilers. This might not have been the best decision considering that even a movie as crucial as Avengers: Endgame had multiple test screenings.
Not to mention that for a comic book movie, this one is a little too musical which has evidently not boded well with the fans. Some are also incredibly skeptical about the film’s ending. All in all, running the test screenings would have been a good move. Giving a few spoilers in lieu of a better performance does not sound like a bad deal.
Joker: Folie à Deux is now in theatres.
