A new clown is in charge at the box office. As Warner Bros.' 'Joker: Folie a Deux' crashes the charts with an impressive 82% drop from its $37.8 million opening weekend, Cineverse/Bloody Disgusting's 'Terrifier 3' has the growing fan base of the infamous Art the Clown in the first No. 1 opening.

“Terrifier 3” was released in 2,514 locations and grossed $8.1 million on its opening day, including $2.5 million from previews on Thursday, putting it on track for a $16 million weekend. That surpasses “Terrifier 2’s” total box office gross of $10.6 million two years ago.

Even though the R-rated horror film is lagging significantly in its second weekend against the limited viewership and competition of Paramount's “Smile 2,” “Terrifier 3” is already in, given its paltry total production and marketing spend of $2.5 million Cinema profitable. Driving the hype primarily through word of mouth among gorehounds who have seen the previous two installments, “Terrifier 3” has become a can't-miss film for anyone who wants to see just how much bloodshed they're in for a slasher film can handle.

“Joker 2,” meanwhile, could fall all the way back to fourth place on this week’s chart, with an industry-wide estimate of $6.8 million in its second weekend. That's not only the reason for Universal/DreamWorks' The Wild Robot, but also a neck-and-neck race with Warner Bros.' Own “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” which is set to be Warner's biggest domestic grosser this year with $7.1 million in its sixth weekend and $275 million overall.

With just $51.3 million for its estimated 10-day total domestic run, “Folie a Deux” has earned about a quarter of the $193.5 million the first “Joker” earned to this point in its theatrical run recorded in 2019.

“The Wild Robot,” meanwhile, lost just 27% in its third weekend, further building on its massive success and status as the only animated family film in theaters to gross more than $100 million in North America and gross $84 million in North America to date. brought in dollars.

Paramount's “Transformers One” rounds out the top five with $3.7 million in its fourth weekend and a domestic total of just under $53 million. It's currently narrowly ahead of Focus Features' “Piece By Piece,” Morgan Neville's Lego stop-motion documentary about the life and career of Pharrell Williams, which is opening to $3.5 million in 1,865 theaters.

More to come…