From the beginning of the marketing for Warner Bros.’ Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, or as some theater chains have changed it to, Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey, I was very skeptical about how successful the film could be. There were a couple of red flags that I saw that could possibly hurt the success of the film. Let’s talk briefly about some of these problems.
First off the ‘R’ rating that significantly cut the box office numbers as a lot of parents did not feel right taking their kids or going to the theaters without them. The second thing was that although the film was titled “Birds of Prey.” this was without a doubt a Harley Quinn centric film. They would have been better off with the title the theaters gave the film, than the one they went with, which was a little misleading. Throughout all of the trailers and posters all we saw was Harley front and center. The problem with that is that although Margot Robbie’s character is very popular, it still brings back memories of the horrible mess that was David Ayer’s Suicide Squad back in 2016. So after two weekends including a President’s Day holiday where do we stand?
We already know that the first weekend Birds of Prey brought in a very underwhelming $33 and according to Forbes, during the second weekend, the film had a 48% drop as it brought in $17.285 million domestically from Friday through Sunday and overall $19.8 million over the holiday weekend. This brings the $82 million film to a total of about $143.1 million worldwide. One of the problems with these numbers is that when it comes to comic book superhero films, this is currently in the company with Dark Phoenix, which brought in $33 million in 2019 and Fantastic Four, which brought in $25 million in 2015.
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It’s being projected to probably going to finish at around $205 million and that is including the thought that it’s not going to do very well in Japan when it opens on March 20th. This would mean that after splitting the ticket sales and paying off the marketing the film will probably break even. So although it’s not at the level of a Terminator: Dark Fate, which made $266 on a $200 million budget or Ghostbusters, which made $229 on a $144 budget, it’s still a disappointment.
Despite these numbers, it’s important to note that the film was liked by critics and well received by audiences. I thought that Christina Hodson’s script was very well directed by Cathy Yan. The film has a feel of reading a Harley Quinn comic book written by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti. Also, this seems to check all the boxes about what audiences want from a film but in a DC packaging. Birds of Prey has a female-led cast with a diverse cast, with of the moment politics and lots of action. Not to mention that it was written and directed by two women.
Overall I think that at this point it’s safe to say that although the film has a lot of promise, it just ended up being disappointing. Not a success, not a flop, just plain and simply disappointing and that is a shame because it’s actually a good film. What do you make of Birds of Prey? Let us know in the comment section below!
Warner Bros. Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn is now playing in theaters everywhere.
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Source: Forbes
