Biggest Box Office Failure of 2024 Cost $200M and Left Us Confused as Hell
2024 was rough for big-budget studio movies, with tentpoles that once seemed untouchable crashing hard on release.
Even long-running franchises and teams stacked with Oscars couldn't dodge the drop in audience confidence — and one film, more than any other, ended up as the year's priciest flop.
That title belongs to Joker: Folie à Deux. Warner Bros. committed a staggering $200 million to Todd Phillips' sequel to Joker (2019), expecting another phenomenon. Instead, it became the costliest flop of the year, with a net loss calculated at $144.25 million. That's not just bad — that's record-breaking bad.
Let's review the body count:
- Budget: $200 million
- Estimated loss: $144.25 million
- Rotten Tomatoes: 45%
- CinemaScore: D
This was supposed to be a slam dunk. The original Joker made $1.1 billion, won two Oscars, and turned Joaquin Phoenix into the world's most depressed clown icon. For the sequel, WB kept Todd Phillips in charge, added Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn, and leaned into prestige rather than CGI spectacle.
And then audiences saw it.
Turns out, instead of gritty realism, Folie à Deux leaned into full-blown musical chaos — think less Taxi Driver, more Sweeney Todd. The tonal shift blindsided viewers, and with a D CinemaScore, word-of-mouth was dead on arrival.
Yes, Phillips had earned the studio's trust — he made them mountains of money with The Hangover trilogy and the first Joker. But this time, that trust bought them a high-concept character study that tanked overseas, confused domestic audiences, and had zero staying power past opening weekend.
The damage? Massive. Not just financially, but reputationally. This was the sequel to a cultural juggernaut — and it ended up as a surreal $200 million experiment no one asked for. Even the curious didn't come back for a second viewing. The dissonance between what was promised and what was delivered became the story.
In a year where superhero fatigue hit hard and franchise burnout was everywhere, Folie à Deux still stood out — as the most expensive flop of 2024, and the one that had people leaving theaters less moved and more... mystified.