NEW YORK (AP) — This weekend's box office selection is included Joaquin Phoenix as Joker, a film about Donald TrumpA The origin story of “Saturday Night Live.” and even Pharrell Williams as Lego. In the end, everyone was felled by an axe-wielding clown.

“Terrifier 3,” a low-budget, bloodthirsty slasher from small-distributor Cineverse, topped the weekend box office with $18.3 million, according to estimates Sunday. The film, a sequel to 2022's “Terrifier 2” ($15 million in global ticket sales), brings back the murderous clown Art (David Howard Thornton) and sets him loose at a Christmas party under the guise of Santa Claus.

The fact that “Terrifier 3” was able to significantly exceed expectations and outperform both the major studios and the award contenders was only possible because the disaster of “Joker: Folie à Deux.” After Todd Phillips' “Joker” sequel starring Phoenix and Lady Gaga got off to a much weaker start last weekend (and received a “D” CinemaScore from audiences), the Warner Bros. release crashed to an incredible 81 in its second weekend %, which only grossed $7.1 million.

There is hardly an example of such a decline in a superhero film. Disappointments like “The Marvels,” “The Flash,” and “Shazam Fury of the Gods” all managed better second weekends. Such mass rejection by audiences and critics is particularly unusual for a follow-up to a smash hit like 2019's Joker. That film, also from Phillips and Phoenix, grossed more than $1 billion worldwide on a budget of $60 million -dollars.

The sequel was more expensive, costing around $200 million. This means that “Joker: Folie à Deux” is headed for a certain box office disaster. Global ticket sales totaled $165.3 million.

“This is a blip of a weekend if there ever was one,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “If you asked someone a month ago, or even a week ago, would 'Terrifier 3' be the number one movie out of all these big studio films and awards contenders?” For a film like this to come together just shows you that the audience is the ultimate arbiter of what wins at the box office.”

The “Joker” slide allows “The Wild Robot” The acclaimed animated film from Universal Pictures and DreamWorks took second place with $13.4 million in its third weekend. Good reviews for Chris Sanders' adaptation of Peter Brown's book led the film, which stars Lupita Nyong'o as the robot protagonist, to gross $83.7 million domestically and $148 million worldwide.

The young Donald Trump film “The Apprentice,” distributed by Briarcliff Entertainment in 1,740 theaters, opened a distant 10th place with ticket sales of a paltry $1.6 million. Although expectations weren't much higher, the audience still showed little enthusiasm for the Republican candidate's election-year origin story.

If the headlines translated into ticket sales, Ali Abbasi's film might have done better. “The Apprentice” with Sebastian Stan as Trump under the direction of Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong)He's been making headlines ever since his debut at the Cannes Film Festival, until its last-minute release just weeks before the election. The Trump's campaign team called the film “Election interference by Hollywood elites.”

Abbasi's film, set in the 1970s and 1980s, tested moviegoers' appetite for a political film in an election year. Major studios and specialty labels refrained from acquiring the film, in part because of questions about whether a film about Trump would alienate both liberal and conservative moviegoers alike. “The Apprentice” will depend on Strong and Stan continuing to talk awards shows to make their mark in theaters before voters go to the polls.

Jason Reitman's “Saturday Night” failed to boost its national distribution. Featuring an ensemble cast led by Gabriel LaBelle's Lorne Michaels, the film grossed $3.4 million from 2,288 locations. Sony Pictures' release of the backstage drama as the NBC sketch comedy show first airs in 1975 will likely need to make a bigger impact with audiences to carry it through awards season.

“Piece by Piece,” a Pharrell Williams animated documentary-biopic hybrid in Lego form, had also hoped to resonate more with moviegoers. The acclaimed Focus Features release, directed by veteran documentarian Morgan Neville (“20 Feet From Stardom,” “Won't You Be My Neighbor?”), opened with $3.8 million from 1,865 theaters.

But the debut for “Piece By Piece,” while low for a Lego animated film, was very high for a documentary. “Piece By Piece,” which had the best CinemaScore of the weekend and an “A” from audiences, could play well for weeks. The film, which had a modest budget of $16 million, is also likely to become the highest-grossing documentary of the year – if “Piece by Piece” can be called that.

“We live in time” the tearful drama starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield, When it opened, it had one of the best average values ​​per cinema of the year with five cinema screens. The A24 release, which will expand nationwide next weekend, opened with $255,911 and a per-screen average of $51,000.

Outside the success of Warner Bros.' With “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” (which grossed $7.1 million in its six weekends of release, despite recently being released on video-on-demand), Hollywood's decline has barely begun. Low-budget horror like “Terrifier 3” continues to be a good choice at the cinema, but this fall was mostly marked by bombs like “Joker: Folie à Deux” and “Joker: Folie à Deux.” “Megalopolis.”

This time last year was Taylor Swift giving a huge boost to the box office with “The Eras Tour”. According to Comscore, this weekend was down 45% compared to the same time last year.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday in U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. The final domestic figures will be published on Monday.

1. “Terrifier 3,” $18.3 million.

2. “The Wild Robot,” $13.5 million.

3. “Joker: Folie à Deux,” $7.1 million.

4. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” $7.1 million.

5. “Piece by Piece,” $3.8 million.

6. “Transformers One,” $3.7 million.

7. “Saturday Night,” $3.4 million.

8. “My Hero Academia: You’re Next,” $3 million.

9. “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” $2.3 million.

10. “The Apprentice,” $1.6 million.