Box office expectations for “Joker: Folie à Deux” have been tumbling since the first reviews rolled out some weeks back.

Todd Phillips’ jukebox musical fantasy take on the “tragic” story of the making of a murderous monster may pair up Lady Gaga with Joaquin Phoenix for a song and even dance or three. But the tone is off, the story’s messy and the message is muddled.

“Joker” earned $96 million when it opened in a pre-COVID thrall of glowing reviews and fan frenzy to see this most serious of comic book adaptations.

It’s a darker world, now, with fascism on the loose and the law unwilling to rein it in. The lighthearted slaughter of “Deadpool & Wolverine” was a break from the steady trend of slumping interest in comic book fare. Thoughts of “Folie à Deux” matching “Joker’s” take vanished, and slipped with every passing week.

A $50 million weekend is still within reach, Deadline.com says. But $45 seems more likely, less than half the last film’s take.

The only other movies opening this weekend are “White Bird,” a surviving WWII tale starring Gillian Anderson, and “Monster Summer,” a witch hunt starring Mel Gibson as the witch hunter. Neither of those will clear $2 million.

That means it’s up to the charming and sweet “The Wild Robot” to take up the slack, and it could clear $20 million on its second weekend, with $18-19 million the track its on right now. It’ll hit $100 million — barely — between Arbor Day and All Hallow’s Eve.

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is still making bank, raking in another $11 as it marches towards the $300 million domestic take mark. Let’s hope Tim Burton does something more interesting and more fun with this box office capital.

“Transformers One” is fading fast and won’t make the $60 million mark before it’s chased off screens — another $5 million and change this weekend.

And “Speak No Evil” is still in the top five, but the James McAvoy remake of a Danish thriller isn’t reviving the horror audience, which has flatlined many a release this year by not showing up. It’ll only take in another $3, and that barely gets it over $30 million since release.

I’ll update these figures and Sat. data starts coming in.