A new report gets into Joker: Folie à Deux‘s choice of not having a screen test. Joaquin Phoenix’s first time as Batman’s greatest villain was a major success, netting the actor a Best Actor Oscar and amᴀssing over $1 billion worldwide. However, the sequel could not follow suit. Joker: Folie à Deux‘s overwhelmingly negative reviews spelled doom for the DC movie from the start, and by the end of its theatrical run, the film was left with $207.5 million on a $200 million budget, which means it lost the studio quite a lot of money.

According to Puck, a top executive from another studio panned DC/Warner’s decision not to have Joker: Folie à Deux screen test, calling it “utter malpractice.” Test screenings are commonly used by Hollywood productions to see if the movie is connecting with an audience the way it should. Changes to make the final product better often come from the ordeal. Joker: Folie à Deux, like the original Joker, did not have test screenings, as director Todd Phillips feared leaks. Future DC movies are unlikely to skip that step, with James Gunn’s Superman already having had test screenings, for instance. Check out the full quote below:

“You don’t allow the refusal to test-screen! There’s no $200 million movie in the business that you don’t test-screen! It’s utter malpractice!”

What The Joker 2 Screen Test Comments Mean

The DC Movie Was A Risky Endeavor

All signs pointed to Joker: Folie à Deux needing to have test screenings, so the fact that it did not end up going through that process is an abnormality in Hollywood. As the unnamed studio executive mentioned to Puck, any film with such a high budget, like that of the Joker sequel, needs to be screen-tested. That process can be vital to learning that certain elements do not connect with audiences as thought or that some characters are more loved than expected, and so adjustments can be made to change them accordingly.

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Since Joker: Folie à Deux was the first superhero movie musical, especially after the first Joker was a more traditional crime drama, test screenings were needed. A sequel that is such a departure from the original and its genre was always bound to generate heated reactions, and without test screenings, Warner could not properly gauge what they would look like. Since the original Joker had a budget of $55 million, it is a very different thing to let it skip test screenings in comparison to its sequel, priced at $200 million. The studio had a lot more to lose.

Our Take On The Joker 2 Screen Test Comments

The DC Sequel Dropped The Ball

I’m with the studio executive when it comes to Joker: Folie à Deux not having had test screenings. I did not like the movie at all. I believe that had it played for test audiences, Warner would have been able to see before its release that the musical route and the uneventful story did not connect with moviegoers. That way, the final product might have been different. It is incredibly risky not to screen-test such an expensive movie to make, and in the end, Joker: Folie à Deux paid a lofty price for that decision.

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Source: Puck