4. Joker: Folie à Deux
Director: Todd Phillips | Budget: 200 million USD (significantly more with marketing) | Revenue: almost 206 million USD (via Box Office Mojo)
Joker was a gigantic success in 2019. With a budget of only 55 million USD, the film grossed over 1 billion USD. Thus, it is not surprising that a second part is being released. However, it was clear even before release that Joker: Folie à Deux would not be the successful sequel hoped for.
Fans were not pleased with the new direction of the film compared to the first part. Additionally, the almost 4 times higher budget created high expectations for the studio. Despite a strong main cast, the film only managed to become known as a large flop in 2024.
Possible reasons for the flop:
- High costs that are not immediately apparent
- The reworking into a musical caused negative publicity
- Reviews are bad compared to the first part (On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a critic score of 32%)
- Core elements of the film negatively affect fans of the first part
5. Megalopolis
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Budget: 120 million USD | Revenue: almost 14 million USD (via Box Office Mojo)
Behind Megalopolis is Francis Ford Coppola, a legendary director known for masterpieces like The Godfather or Apocalypse Now. Megalopolis was supposed to be his heartfelt project for which he even mortgaged his winery and invested 100 million USD himself (via Business Insider).
Unfortunately, it became clear early on that the expensive science fiction film would not be a success. The film, which is based on the fall of the Roman Empire as a science fiction fantasy story, did not attract viewers to theaters.
Possible reasons for the flop:
- A film like that is simply too expensive from the start with over 100 million USD
- The story is too abstract and unusual to market
- Coppola has not had a hit for a long time (His last film was released in 2011, his most famous before that was perhaps Dracula from 1992)
- The film had long trouble finding a studio, which also delayed the marketing
- Reviews were mediocre (On Rotten Tomatoes, the film only got 45% from critics)
For many of these films, one might not have expected beforehand that they would flop. Especially with Joker 2, one would hardly have thought that. But in 2024, there were of course many gems. Especially in the horror genre. We present 7 of them in this list: 7 horror movies from 2024 that fans should not miss
