One killer clown takes down another at the weekend box office

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. In 2019, a reasonably budgeted film about a killer clown ruled the box office. In 2024, the sequel is being completely eclipsed by another sequel with an even more reasonable budget about a different killer clown. Arthur Fleck simply couldn't compete with Art the Clown. Arthur Fleck can barely compete with anyone: Joker: Folie À Deux had the steepest decline in a second weekend any comic book movie has ever had and ​​close to the worst second weekend for any movie ever. 

Joker 2's paltry $7 million take this past weekend put it at number three at the box office, per Box Office Mojo. Meanwhile, Terrifier 3 debuted on top with $18.3 million, a runaway success for an indie horror film with a budget of just $2 million. The little slasher that could reigned supreme over a bunch of higher budget movies with much more powerful studios behind them. The animated children's movie The Wild Robot comes in at the number two spot, while Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (enjoying a fairly successful run) slots in at number four. Terrifier 3 came out way ahead of the next-highest debut of the weekend, Piece By Piece, which came in at number five. The Pharrell Williams biopic, which is inexplicably a Lego movie, opened to $3.8 million at the box office on a reported $16 million budget.  

Box office-wise, it wasn't a great weekend for the buzzy awards contenders. Saturday Night, Jason Reitman's SNL hagiography, came in at number seven, while The Apprentice, Ali Abbasi's opposite-of-a-hagiography about Donald Trump, debuted at the number 10 spot. The romantic drama We Live In Time starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield opened down at number 18, but with a $225,911 haul at just five theaters it earned the distinction of the best per-theater average of the weekend. You can check out the full top ten of the weekend below, courtesy Box Office Mojo.

Weekend Box Office October 11-13, 2024

1. Terrifer 3, $18,300,000
2. The Wild Robot, $13,450,000
3. Joker: Folie À Deux, $7,054,527
4. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, $7,050,000
5. Piece By Piece, $3,800,000
6. Transformers One, $3,650,000
7. Saturday Night, $3,435,000
8. My Hero Academia: You're Next, $3,007,420
9. The Nightmare Before Christmas, $2,300,000
10. The Apprentice, $1,580,000