Plus, a look at how festival films are faring commercially.
| October 4, 2024 
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Hi, movie fans! Much-anticipated movies that played the fall festivals are starting to make their way to theaters, and it has not been pretty. First up was "Megalopolis," the passion project that Francis Ford Coppola spent $140 million of his own money on. That film kicked up a fuss when it debuted in Cannes. And though it was the subject of avid conversation on my socials when it opened last weekend and The Times's Manohla Dargis made it a critic's pick, the drama played to near-empty theaters, tallying about $4 million at the box office and earning a D-plus in CinemaScore exit polls. As my colleague Brooks Barnes reported, "There is no kind way to put it," the film "died on arrival." This weekend, "Joker: Folie à Deux" reaches theaters after debuting at the Venice Film Festival. While it's expected to have a much, much bigger opening (it could hardly do worse), the reviews have not been kind. It was decidedly not a critic's pick for Dargis, who wrote that it's "such a dour, unpleasant slog that it is hard to know why it was made or for whom." She's got a lot of company: As of Friday afternoon, the film was rated 38 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Remember, this is the sequel to a film that took the top prize at Venice (in 2019) and garnered 11 Oscar nominations. Yikes. There is another festival alumnus hitting theaters this weekend. The Sundance drama "The Outrun" stars Saoirse Ronan as a young alcoholic trying to maintain her sobriety on the Orkney Islands off Scotland. Ronan's performance turns the film, "which occasionally veers near overdone territory, into a thing of beauty and hard-won joy," Alissa Wilkinson writes in her critic's pick review. Many more festival films will be making their way to theaters this season. Stay tuned for the reception. In the meantime, we want to know what questions you have about movies, moviegoing and everything else in pop culture and the arts. We're kicking off a new advice column and want to hear from you. As always, thank you for reading and have fun at the movies! |  | | Niko Tavernise/Warner Bros. Pictures |
'Joker: Folie à Deux' Review: Make 'Em Laugh (and Yawn)Todd Phillips's "Joker" sequel stars Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga who sing and dance like crazy kids, but the movie is seriously un-fun. By Manohla Dargis |  | | Nadine Redlich |
Too Scared to Watch Horror Movies? These 5 Tips May Help.How to get into the season, even if you're squeamish. By Maya Salam and Nadine Redlich |
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