Art the Clown has dethroned Arthur Fleck as the box office’s favorite killer clown whose first name is Arthur. Weird that there are two! Terrifier 3 debuted at number 1 at the domestic box office, earning $20 million in its first week. Below that, Joker 2 came in second, with just over $7 million. Folie à Deux had an 80% drop in ticket sales its second week, per Variety. It had a bigger drop off than The Marvels, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Shazam: Fury of the Gods, and The Flash. How un-cheerworthy of a moment for comic book movies. It just goes to show: promise a musical with Lady Gaga and present a non-musical with Stefani Germonatta? Bad B.O. Promise a Christmas movie about a clown that kills people and present a Christmas movie about a clown that kills people? Boffo box office, baby. Even if it’s Christmas in October.
Also having less-than-cheerworthy opening weekends are Pharrell’s Lego doc Piece by Piece, Lorne Michaels stress dream Saturday Night, and controversial Trump/Roy Cohn biopic The Apprentice. They debuted at 6th, 7th, and 11th respectively. Rounding out the top 5 were The Wild Robot, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and Transformers One. Next week, Smile 2 debuts, which comedian Demi Adejuyigbe pointed out on Twitter, means that “a sequel about a killer clown, a sequel about an evil smile, and a $200m sequel about a killer clown with an evil smile†will all be competing for the same audience. Who say Hollywood is out of ideas?