Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) scores the lowest box office opening for a DC film in over a decade. Margot Robbie made her debut as Harley in 2016’s Suicide Squad, a film that was widely panned but still proved to be commercially successful (grossing $746.8 million worldwide). Robbie’s performance as Quinn was arguably Suicide Squad’s biggest highlight, encouraging Warner Bros. to pursue various projects featuring the character. Birds of Prey ultimately won out (though Gotham City Sirens is still on the table) and hit theaters this past weekend.

Directed by Cathy Yan, Birds of Prey earned widespread praise from critics for being a fun, action-packed comic book adaptation. Despite that positive word-of-mouth, the film was long predicted to have the worst debut in the DCEU. Many were hoping that the enthusiastic reviews would lead to a change of fortunes, but Birds of Prey actually failed to meet its modest expectations.

According to The Wrap, Birds of Prey grossed $33.2 million domestically in its first three days. Not only is that by far the lowest opening in the DCEU (well below Shazam’s $53.5 million), it’s the worst debut for any DC adaptation since Jonah Hex’s $5.3 million in 2010.

The silver lining here is Birds of Prey was moderately budgeted, so it was never in a position where it needed to break the bank in order to turn a profit for WB. While Birds of Prey opened with considerably less than Green Lantern ($53.1 million), it isn’t a commercial bomb like that infamous 2011 flop. At the same time, it’s hard to not be disappointed by this turn of events. Back in December, Birds of Prey was projected to earn between $40-60 million in its debut, and it ultimately fell short of that conservative estimate. It’s worth wondering if the R rating played a factor here, limiting the film’s potential audience (Suicide Squad was PG-13). There’s also the fact the Birds of Prey property isn’t as recognizable to general audiences as something like Joker or Logan to consider.

Currently, Birds of Prey stands at $81.2 million, and hopefully it holds well over the next couple of weeks so it goes down as a financial success. It won’t be facing much in the way of direct competition for its target audience the remainder of the month (though there are still some high-profile offerings on the way), so it’ll be interesting to see how Birds of Prey fares the rest of the way. Even more fascinating will be what the future holds in store for Harley Quinn and company on the big screen. She’ll be in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, but it remains to be seen if there’ll be a Birds of Prey sequel or another Harley-centric film.

More: Harley Quinn’s DC Movie Future After Birds of Prey

Source: The Wrap

  • Birds of Prey Release Date: 2020-02-07 Wonder Woman 2 Release Date: 2020-12-25 The Batman Release Date: 2022-03-04 Suicide Squad 2 Release Date: 2021-08-06 Black Adam Release Date: 2022-10-21 Super Pets Release Date: 2022-07-29 The Flash Movie Release Date: 2023-06-23 Shazam! The Fury of the Gods Release Date: 2023-03-17 Aquaman 2 Release Date: 2023-12-25