Joker 2: bigger budget for sequel increases payday for Phoenix

Last Updated on September 2, 2022

As Warner Bros scrambles to quell several fires that has engulfed their DC cinematic division, there are still a few titles for their franchises that they can still count on to excite the fans and continue to bring in the numbers. One such anticipated movie is the sequel to the 2019 film, Joker starring Joaquin Phoenix in the titular role. Joker became a big hit with audiences as it grossed $1.07 billion worldwide and earned Phoenix a Best Actor oscar.

According to Variety, the budget for the second movie, set to be titled, “Joker: Folie à Deux,” will be much higher due to the planned musical sequences that will be included. Todd Phillips, director of the first movie, announced his finished script on social media and talks had been underway to cast singer and actress, Lady Gaga, in the role of Harley Quinn. She would be playing a new interpretation of the character once occupied by Margot Robbie in the DC shared universe films.

Variety also reports that along with a higher budget, comes a bigger payday for the oscar-winning star. Both Phoenix and Phillips are believed to take in $20 million for this follow-up. This increase would amount to $15.5 million more than what Phoenix garnered on the first movie whereas Phillips received a percentage. Lady Gaga, the new cast member, is said to be getting $10 million for her role. An insider also reports they’re aiming for more of a type of A Star is Born – which Gaga herself had starred in and earned an academy award nomination for.

The much beloved Warner Bros movie studio with deep Hollywood roots has hit a few snags fairly recently trying to keep up with an ever-changing landscape of cinema. Their streaming service, HBOMax, has experimented with a number of distribution options for their theater-released films. Their comic book universe tried and stumbled to keep up with the juggernaut of Marvel Studios. And now, a big merger with Discovery has CEO David Zaslav taking the reigns with a number of newer issues cropping up. Zaslav is now overseeing their DC feature films as Hamada has now stepped away and it was recently announced that they will be following Marvel’s formula of mapping out a plan ahead of time.