The upside of Birds of Prey‘s opening weekend, which topped out at $81M worldwide, with just $33M of that domestic, is the film was relatively inexpensive at just about $100M. That’s the lowest of any DCEU movie, and so it will more than likely turn a profit when all is said and done. That said, Warner Bros. is still disappointed in the early numbers, as well they should be, and have found a way to try and turn things around: by changing the movie’s title.
Spotted by Comicbook.com at Cinemark and AMC theaters is a new title that puts Margot Robbie’s character front and center, Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey.
It’s so simple, it kinda makes you wonder why they didn’t think of this before?
Seriously, the title Birds of Prey was fine but if you have a popular character like Harley Quinn why wouldn’t you flaunt it? Most of the promos didn’t even bother to include the ridiculously-long subtitle (And the Fantabulous of One Harley Quinn), so there was no value in that. It makes sense to put Robbie, who was also just nominated for an Oscar, fully in the spotlight.
We’ll see if this strategy works or not. More good news is the positive response from critics and audiences, not to mention a weak crop of new releases in coming weeks. If there’s a turn around and Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey shows steady legs we might get that sequel director Cathy Yan is eager to make.
