NEW YORK (AP) — The choices on the movie marquee this weekend included Joaquin Phoenix as the Joker, a film about Donald Trump, a “Saturday Night Live” origin story and even Pharrell Williams as a Lego. In the end, all were trounced by an ax-wielding clown.

“Terrifier 3,” a gory, low-budget slasher from the small distributor Cineverse, topped the weekend box office with USD18.3 million, according to estimates Sunday. The film, a sequel to 2022’s “Terrifier 2” (USD15 million worldwide in ticket sales), brings back the murderous Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) and lets him loose, under the guise of Santa, at a Christmas party.

That “Terrifier 3” could notably overperform expectations and leapfrog both major studios and awards hopefuls was only possible due to the disaster of “Joker: Folie à Deux.” After Todd Phillips’ “Joker” sequel, starring Phoenix and Lady Gaga, got off to a much-diminished start last weekend (and a “D” CinemaScore from audiences), the Warner Bros. release fell a staggering 81 per cent in its second weekend, bringing in just USD7.1 million.

For a superhero film, such a drop has little precedent. Disappointments like “The Marvels,” “The Flash” and “Shazam Fury of the Gods” all managed better second weekends. Such a mass rejection by audiences and critics is particularly unusually for a follow-up to a massive hit like 2019’s “Joker.” That film, also from Phillips and Phoenix, grossed more than USD1 billion worldwide against a USD60 million budget.

The sequel was pricier, costing about USD200 million to make. That means “Joker: Folie à Deux” is headed for certain box-office disaster. Globally, it’s collected USD165.3 million in ticket sales.

“This is an outlier of a weekend if ever there was one,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore. “If you had asked anyone a month ago or even a week ago: Would ‘Terrifier 3’ be the number one movie amongst all these major-studio films and awards contenders? To have a movie like this come along just shows you that the audience is the ultimate arbiter of what wins at the box office.”

The “Joker” slide allowed “The Wild Robot,” the acclaimed Universal Pictures and DreamWorks animated movie, to take second place in its third weekend with USD13.4 million. Strong reviews for Chris Sanders’ adaptation of Peter Brown’s book have led the movie, with Lupita Nyong’o voicing the robot protagonist, to USD83.7 million domestically and USD148 million worldwide.

The young Donald Trump film “The Apprentice,” distributed by Briarcliff Entertainment in 1,740 theaters, opened in a distant 10th place, managing a paltry USD1.6 million in ticket sales. While expectations weren’t much higher, audiences still showed little enthusiasm for an election-year origin story of the Republican nominee.

The “Joker” slide allowed “The Wild Robot,” the acclaimed Universal Pictures and DreamWorks animated movie, to take second place in its third weekend with USD13.4 million. Strong reviews for Chris Sanders’ adaptation of Peter Brown’s book have led the movie, with Lupita Nyong’o voicing the robot protagonist, to USD83.7 million domestically and USD148 million worldwide.

The young Donald Trump film “The Apprentice,” distributed by Briarcliff Entertainment in 1,740 theaters, opened in a distant 10th place, managing a paltry USD1.6 million in ticket sales. While expectations weren’t much higher, audiences still showed little enthusiasm for an election-year origin story of the Republican nominee.

-- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin