During an editorial meeting on Thursday, a Variety The editor asked if anyone would be willing to give up their Friday evening to write a piece about the opening night screening of “Joker: Folie à Deux.” After an endless silence with no candidates, I reluctantly raised my hand. With Todd Phillips’ previous “Joker,” I watched Joaquin Phoenix transform into the titular Clown Prince of Darkness from a plum seat at the Toronto Film Festival during its world premiere in a theater full of journalists and VIPs. This would be a different experience where I would be sitting among the sweaty fanboy crowds. It turns out I was wrong.

Thinking that a Friday night performance at the Grove would be a good example of how the sequel to “Joker” was playing across the country, I headed to the ticket booth. Twenty minutes before showtime, the seats were wide open for a regular screening at this popular AMC Theater. Only a handful of seats had been claimed. How is that possible? It would be another twelve hours before the film’s dismal “D” CinemaScore was announced.

I asked a helpful clerk who didn’t seem surprised. “The Prime and Dolby tend to sell out. The tickets are a bit more expensive if that’s okay,’ the young woman suggested. Asked whether she planned to see the film, she deadpanned, “I was until I saw the reviews.”

A Dolby screening was about to start, with the trailers still playing. Once again I was shocked that tickets were still available. So I looked at the options for an IMAX screening in 45 minutes. Finally, open seating was limited, but still plentiful. I would have preferred an exit seat. (It’s a Joker movie, after all, and the Aurora shooter dressed as the deranged villain is still fresh in our minds). Unfortunately, a seat in the middle of the aisle should be enough.

There was time to kill, so I approached patrons leaving previous screenings and stopped to grab a free poster showing Phoenix and co-star Lady Gaga descending a steep staircase in an image reminiscent of the version’s key art from 2019, which featured Joker crying like crazy in heaven at the top of a staircase in Gotham City. Six USC students had just left an IMAX screening and seemed eager to share their impressions.

“I liked this better than ‘Megalopolis,’” said a young man named Matthew. (I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or an insult.)

Matthew’s girlfriend Grace came to get Gaga and was not disappointed. “It was definitely funny. I’m not sure if it was intentional, but it made me laugh,” she said.

Another young man named Landon, wearing a matching T-shirt that read, “Only anarchists are beautiful,” noted the lack of fanboys during the screening.

“I didn’t see any people that looked like comic books, like Marvel or DC, right?” he said. “The first one had a lot of, wink, wink or something like that, like little Bruce Wayne. They don’t have that here, do they? It’s like the demographic you’d expect to show up. But it makes sense, since it’s as much talk as “Lincoln.” It’s basically the same movie as ‘Lincoln.’”

These reviews don’t bode well for a $200 million movie that should attract all four quadrants. Speaking of the budget, Matthew doesn’t see the massive capital expenditure being translated onto the screen.

“They kind of gave him a blank check,” he says of Warner Bros. “This cost $200 million and takes place in about four locations. And I thought, where did the money go? Gaga and Phoenix probably and, like, prison cells.”

As I made my way to seat F11, I surveyed the crowd and immediately wondered if I was in the right room. The vast majority of attendees were couples – straight, gay, young, middle-aged – holding hands and cuddling in front of a movie that would soon see the titular psychopath bash a judge’s head with a hammer until his brain matter spilled over the stands walked. In fact, I haven’t seen this many couples in a theater since opening night of “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.” No one was dressed as the Joker. The only masks were the cloth Covid masks.

The couple to my right – two men – move to two empty seats to my right after the trailers end. But a minute into the film, another couple – men and women – arrive and want their rightful seats. They’re standing right in front of me discussing, and I miss most of the animated intro. As soon as the heterosexual couple settles into their chairs, they start crawling busy. Really busy. Kissing, talking, ignoring the movie altogether. At one point they were spooning, with their seats fully reclined – the woman (and the man’s hand) reaching into my territory. My fear of catching a stray mass shooter was replaced by landing an STD through proximity.

During the entire screening the (still not full) hall was filled with constant movement. People come, people go. To the bathroom, to the concession stand, just stretching their legs in the middle of the 2:19 running time. A few strikes. It felt busier than LAX, where I had just landed hours earlier. Despite all the hustle and bustle, this was the most energetic crowd I’ve seen in a while. No cheering. There is no laughter at the few jokes.

Before the screening, the gay couple to my right agreed to give me their full view of the film after “Joker” ended. But as soon as the first credits rolled, they headed for the exit along with most of the theater. Only about five people watched as the hundreds of people who worked on this ambitious project were absorbed here in their hometown.

I walked up to the only one who looked like a potential fanboy, holding an empty bucket of popcorn, when the lights came on. I misjudged it. Tedashii was by no means a self-described fanboy. He just liked the first film and showed up for another outing of unabashed nihilism. “Long but enjoyable” was his general criticism. But he also struggled with his fellow theatergoers and their lack of interest in the film itself.

“There were people next to me whispering and talking, hugging and kissing each other. And I’m like, ‘Why are you spending $50 plus concessions to come see this?’ I mean, literally, the judge gets hit on the back of the head. And once it’s done, they whisper. And then they tell a joke, and then he kisses her. And I thought: what’s happening next to me?