BIRDS OF PREY...WHAT HAPPENED?

By Matt Chieco

‘Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)’ underperformed its opening weekend earning only $33 million, sadly it has the worst DC opening numbers since 2010’s ‘Jonah Hex’. Meanwhile other R-rated comic book movies have really succeeded at the box office, Marvel’s ‘Deadpool’ earned over $130 million opening weekend in 2015 and DC’s ‘Joker’ earned over $90 million its opening weekend in 2019. So what happened? Was it the rating, the marketing, or something else.

Days before the release everything was going well for the newest addition to the DCEU, ‘Birds of Prey’ was certified fresh on rotten tomatoes (and still is at 80%), B+ CinemaScore, and the word of mouth was vey high all over social media. The box office projections going into opening weekend was $50-$55 million. Then everything hit the fan and Warner Bros. is now trying to fix the problem, but will they only make it worse.

Days after the opening weekend Warner Brothers changed the title of the movie shown at theaters. Going from ‘Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)’ to ‘Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey’. The studio is now using the name recognition of the famed comic book character in hopes to attract more audiences.

Hopefully people will start to see it before the studio makes more changes it to the movie (and you should see it). ‘Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey’ is now playing in theaters.