Birds of Prey could end up a major disappointment for Warner Bros. and the DCEU. After early projections had the star-studded all-girl flick opening at roughly $50M, a Friday debut of just $13M (which includes the $4M from Thursday previews) has lowered those expectations to $34M. That would be the weakest launch for any DCEU movie, and the lowest for any DC Comics movie since Jonah Hex‘s $5.3M in 2010, and that only opened in 2800 theaters.
Assuming these numbers hold, this would be a huge setback when Warner Bros. was really on a roll following the successes of Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Shazam. The assumption going in was that Birds of Prey was a lock to follow in their footsteps. Margot Robbie returned as the popular Harley Quinn, joined by a cast that includes fan-favorite actress Mary Elizabeth Wintead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Rosie Perez, and Ewan McGregor. Trailers suggested an irreverent, high-octane R-rated movie in the vein of Deadpool, only with a lot more Girl Power.
Reviews have been strong across the board, as well. Audiences have graded it a B+ with Cinemascore, and it currently stands at 81% on Rotten Tomatoes. So those who have seen the film, really dig it quite a lot. Perhaps it’s all about spreading the word and it’ll have a lengthy theatrical run? If not, it’s unclear what the future could hold for these characters.
I’m baffled, to be perfectly honest. Anecdotally I know some of my guy friends, and some of our readers who have messaged me, have expressed disinterest or outright scorn. Hopefully, we’re not seeing the same sort of backlash that has hurt other studio films with predominantly female casts. You can check out my review of Birds of Prey here.
