The budget of the next Joaquin Phoenix film, Joker: Madness for two was revealed and it is significantly higher than that of the previous film.
Back in 2019, Joker hit theaters and became a huge hit. With a budget of around $55 million, the film became the highest-grossing DC film of all time after earning over $1 billion at the worldwide box office. A sequel was supposed to follow, but Warner Bros. dragged its feet on making any sort of announcement until recently.
Earlier this summer, the sequel title, Joker: Madness for two, was revealed. The first teaser for the film also confirmed that Lady Gaga will be involved in the film, although it’s unclear who she will be playing. We now know roughly how much the next film will cost.
A recent report from Variety broke down how much Joker: Madness for two would cost. It was previously reported that Joaquin Phoenix received a massive pay raise and will earn $20 million for the upcoming film. The new report also states that director Todd Philips also receives a similar salary. Newcomer Lady Gaga will also receive $10 million for her role in the upcoming film. This, coupled with the film’s production costs, will bring it to around $150 million, costing almost three times as much as the first film.
Here is the official synopsis of Joker:
Director Todd Phillips’ “Joker” centers on the iconic nemesis and is an original, standalone fictional story never before seen on the big screen. Phillips’ exploration of Arthur Fleck, who is indelibly played by Joaquin Phoenix, is that of a man struggling to find his way in Gotham’s fractured society. Clown for hire by day, he aspires to be a stand-up comedian by night…but finds the joke always seems to be on him. Caught in a cyclical existence between apathy and cruelty, Arthur makes a bad decision that causes a chain reaction of mounting events in this gritty character study.
Directed by Todd Phillips from a script he co-wrote with Scott Silver, Joker stars Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Bill Camp, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Glenn Fleshler, Douglas Hodge, Marc Maron, Josh Pais and Shea Whigham.
Joker is available in 4K UHD, Blu-ray, DVD and Digital, while Madness for Two hits theaters on October 4, 2024. Stay tuned for all the latest news on the upcoming film and be sure to subscribe to Heroic Hollywood’s YouTube channel for more original video content.
Source: Variety
