The budget of "Joker 2" is 3 times that of 1, and the male lead and director each received 20 million US dollars

According to Variety, Joker 2 will have a budget three times that of the first film.

The film's star Joaquin Phoenix and director Todd Phillips each received $20 million in salary, and Lady Gaga, who plays the role of Harley Quinn in the film, will also receive up to $10 million in salary. Adding the production cost of the complex music scene, the production cost of "Joker 2" is about $150 million.

It is worth mentioning that the production budget of "Joker 1" was only 60 million US dollars, but it brought more than 1 billion US dollars in revenue to Warner Bros.

Currently, "Joker 2" is the only DC project approved after the merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery Channel. Previously, the "Batgirl" movie was cut, and the ultimate reason may be tax cuts.

Of course, this is still a smaller budget than most superhero movies, making Joker 2 more cost-effective than the recent DC film The Batman starring Robert Pattinson. But it's still far more than Warner Bros. Discovery was willing to set aside for Batgirl.