Despite disappointing numbers, an extended holiday weekend could help Harley Quinn film recover
“Birds of Prey” may still find emancipation from the box office doldrums, after a surprisingly weak opening weekend that was the worst start for a DC film in a decade.
Heading into its release last Friday, the Harley Quinn film was expected to open to $55 million, with Warner Bros. projecting a more modest opening of $45 million. It came in at $33 million.
One change that could help boost awareness of the film: AMC, Regal Cinemas and Cinemark have changed the title on their ticketing sites from “Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)” to simply “Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey.” TheWrap reported that the change did not come from Warner Bros. and instead from theater chains to help optimize the title for online search engines.
But it could also be a benefit for the film’s marketing, emphasizing to curious moviegoers who visit those sites that Harley Quinn is the central figure in this film.
Box office returns on opening weekend fell below expectations not only in the U.S. but around the world, resulting in a global launch of just $79.5 million.
Pre-release buzz had seemed to be in its favor, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 83% and an early February release date that has been good to WB in the past with hits like “The Lego Batman Movie” and as a good launching point for mature blockbusters like “John Wick: Chapter 2.” Despite the box office miss, the one silver lining was that audience metrics were still positive. “Birds of Prey” received a B+ on CinemaScore along with 4/5 on Postrak and 81% verified audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
While not the wild praise audiences have given to films like “Wonder Woman” or the recent “Spider-Man” films, it’s still strong word of mouth that might help “Birds of Prey” turn a modest profit in the long run.
That begins this weekend, which starts with Valentine’s Day on Friday and ends with Presidents’ Day on Monday. With that extended weekend, there will be more audiences, especially couples, looking to spend a night at the movies. The new releases will each provide something unique that a different portion of the audience might be looking for. “The Photograph” offers a straight-laced romance for Valentine couples. “Fantasy Island” is there for those looking for a horror flick for date night. “Sonic the Hedgehog” will cater to families with kids home from school for an extra day.
But “Birds of Prey” might still be an option for audiences looking for a blockbuster that promises a wild ride. Both social media and critics reviews praised the film for its gonzo aesthetics and snarky humor reminiscent of the popular “Deadpool” films. The lack of familiarity among casual audiences with Harley Quinn and the rest of the DC characters in this film might have left them disinterested by the trailers, but post-release word of mouth may convince some to reconsider.
There’s also another factor that won’t be as much in play as it was last weekend and in the run-up to the film’s release: the Oscars. As we noted on Sunday, the shortened awards season schedule pushed Oscar Sunday up to early February, creating a different kind of environment than that which early February releases in the past and many comic book movies found in the run-up to their release.
DC films like “Batman v Superman,” “Wonder Woman” and “Suicide Squad” were the most-talked about films on social media in the week prior to their release, and the media buzz surrounding those films reflected it. But “Birds of Prey” had to share the pop culture conversation with “1917,” “Parasite” and the discussion over who would win Best Picture. This might have weakened pre-release awareness and interest of the new blockbuster in theaters even if “1917” wasn’t a direct competitor at its sixth weekend in wide release.
While the historic Best Picture victory of “Parasite” will likely give the Korean film one more big box office bump this weekend, the Oscar talk is mostly over and done with now. In a best case scenario for WB, the end of awards season will allow “Birds of Prey” some space to build post-release awareness, and the extended weekend will lead to a strong second frame of $20 million or more over four days.
If these changes pay off, “Birds of Prey” might end up following the path of films that had quiet openings but endured in theaters thanks to audience excitement. One such film was Best Picture Oscar nominee “Ford v Ferrari,” which opened to $31.4 million last November against a $97 million budget. Despite that low number compared to its production spend, analysts expected that the widespread critical and audience acclaim for the film would allow it to leg out well over the holidays and perform well overseas. That’s just what it did with a $116 million domestic and $223 million global run, numbers that should also push “Birds of Prey” out of the red if it were to match.
If that second weekend rebound doesn’t come, “Birds of Prey” will likely join the likes of “Doctor Sleep” and “Motherless Brooklyn” on the list of recent flops for Warner Bros. But if it comes back from this disappointing opening weekend and becomes a modest hit, it may simply be looked back on as a film that did alright but just fell short of the expectations of its DC pedigree. That’s what happened to “The Secret Life of Pets 2,” a sequel that did solid numbers for Universal last summer but didn’t do nearly as well as the other Illumination animated films that came before it.
For “Birds of Prey,” it just depends on whether the moviegoers that come out this Valentine’s Day weekend decide to give Harley, Huntress, Renee, Cassandra and Black Canary another chance.
Every DC Comics Movie Ranked From Worst to Best, Including 'Birds of Prey' and 'Joker'
Marvel may be the dominant force in comic book movies at the moment just through sheer numbers, it's actually DC Comics that has the historical edge. Films based on DC properties go back nearly a century to those ancient Batman and Superman serials, while Marvel didn't really get things going until this century. That's a lot of history -- how do the recent "Birds of Prey" and "Joker" stack up? Let's take a look.
36. "Jonah Hex" (2010)
Despite the efforts of Josh Brolin and Michael Fassbender, this is one of the worst comic book movies of the modern era.
35. "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" (1987)
Christopher Reeve is by far the best Superman. But "Superman IV" is a bomb in every sense -- partly because of its heavy-handedness about bombs. Nuclear bombs. The film finds Superman trying to eliminate the world's nuclear threat, but his best intentions run afoul of a silly, badly dated villain named Nuclear Man.
34. "Supergirl" (1984)
We had a female-superhero movie in 1984, and it was pure cheese. But hey, at least they tried. The best thing I can say about it is there are worse things in life than this movie.
33. "Suicide Squad" (2016)
Less a movie than it is a fever dream of unrelated sequences and montages that somehow end up using more than two hours of your time. Totally incomprehensible experience.
Best known as "the one Shaq was in back when he tried acting," "Steel" is pretty bad. But the fun kind of bad.
31. "Justice League" (2017)
Warner Bros has continued to innovate in how to make bad DCEU movies, with "Justice League" managing to be terrible in a totally different way from "Batman v Superman" and "Suicide Squad."
30. "Man of Steel" (2013)
Could have been worse, I guess. But it's still morally gross and has a plot that doesn't make sense. That it's very pretty to look at doesn't override those things nearly enough to make it watchable.
29. "Joker" (2019)
This is not a good characterization of the Joker as a human being, and aside from that it's just a soulless, meaningless experience.
28. "Catwoman" (2004)
Thoroughly horrible, but somehow amusing even so. Sad that it's seemingly been swept into the litter box of history.
27. "Batman & Robin" (1997)
Rightly hated, but it's tremendously entertaining here and there. Uma Thurman and Arnold Schwarzeneggar are going so far over the top I can't help but admire them.
26. "Superman III" (1983)
Featured a brilliant corporate rip-off -- one later referenced in "Office Space" -- but the attempt to funny things up with the addition of Richard Pryor didn't gel. There was also a weird bit about a weather satellite creating bad weather, which isn't what weather satellites do. Seeing Clark Kent fight Superman was pretty cool, though.
25. "Green Lantern" (2011)
Overreliance on cartoony visual effects during a period when big blockbusters were moving away from that aesthetic meant this was a movie nobody liked. Not that it was especially horrible. It just looked like a dumb cartoon and is hard to watch.
24. "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012)
Probably wasn't intended to be a grim and gritty Shumacher Batmovie, but that is indeed what it is. This is Nolan going full Hollywood, smashing plot points into place by sheer force of will rather than because they make sense. An extremely theatrical Tom Hardy as Bane is amusing front to back, and a nuke with a countdown clock on it will never get old.
23. "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" (2016)
A total mess that hates Superman and turns Batman into a total maniac. None of those things are good. Ben Affleck can't save the thing, but he's excellent nonetheless and gives it a huge bump it probably doesn't deserve.
22. "Watchmen" (2009)
I have no particular affection for the revered "Watchmen" comic the way a lot of other nerds do, so my distaste for this adaptation isn't personal. It just doesn't add up to nearly as much as it thinks it does.
21. "Batman" (1989)
Fondly remembered mostly because it was the first Batmovie in a couple decades. It isn't actually very good, though. The reveal that a younger version of the Joker killed Bruce Wayne's parents is as hamfistedly dumb as it gets in a "Batman" movie.
20. "V for Vendetta" (2006)
Felt nothing watching this. I tried, OK. It's impeccably made, though, and very watchable.
Giving this its own slot because it fundamentally changes the narrative of the movie and the character of Superman in the DC Extended Universe. This version is still not great (especially at three freaking hours), but it's a monumental improvement over the theatrical version.
17. "Red 2" (2013)
Did you even know these were comic book movies? Whatever, it's a great cast in a serviceable action movie and everybody's having a good time. Hard to remember, but fun.
16. "Red" (2010)
Better than its sequel, but they're basically the same.
15. "Batman Forever" (1995)
Hits just the right tone for what Joel Shumacher was trying to do with the two films he directed. Tommy Lee Jones, as Two Face, is doing stuff in this movie that is hard to believe even today, given his perpetual sour face in nearly every other movie he's been in.
14. "Superman Returns" (2006)
Actually a pretty decent attempt by Bryan Singer to do a Christopher Reeve "Superman" movie in the present day, but Brandon Routh couldn't pull off the charisma it takes to be the Man of Steel. It was his first movie, so that's not surprising. But it's a shame, because Routh has gotten much better in the years since.
13. "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" (1993)
Remember that time they released a "Batman" cartoon theatrically? It gets lost amongst all the live-action ones, but "Mask of the Phantasm" is better than most of them.
12. "The LEGO Batman Movie" (2017)
Funny, sweet and self-deprecating -- exactly what we needed in the wake of the disaster that was "Batman v Superman."
11. "Superman II" (1980)
Made kids everywhere cry as they watched Superman give up his powers for a normal life with Lois Lane (Margot Kidder). There are different edits of this movie, and we frankly can't keep them straight. But the sight of a powerless Clark getting beat up in a diner made Superman as sympathetic as he's ever been.
10. "Wonder Woman" (2017)
Has the standard origin movie problem of "too much story, not enough time." And the standard DC Extended Universe problem of "We gotta have a nonsensical CGI battle at the end." But despite those caveats it's an enormous delight, and a big step forward for the DCEU.
9. "Birds of Prey" (2020)
This film is sensory overload, but (mostly) in all the right ways. And it's got the best action we've ever seen in any DC or Marvel movie. This would be a top 5 DC flick easily if the storytelling wasn't such a huge mess.
8. "The Dark Knight" (2008)
Should be way shorter, but Heath Ledger's Joker is far and away the best villain in any of these movies. Ledger elevates what would otherwise be just another self-indulgent Christopher Nolan exercise into an endlessly watchable picture.
7. "Batman Returns" (1992)
One of the best of the franchise because it's really just a political thriller. The Penguin emerges from the sewer and runs for mayor of Gotham! It's great stuff, especially as we continue to watch the rise of Trump in our world.
6. "Shazam" (2019)
It’s just so much fun! It’s a blast to watch, and is just a really nice celebration of the good parts of humanity. “Shazam” is a movie that simply feels good to watch.
5. "Constantine" (2005)
A happy balance of serious and ridiculous, manages to find exactly the right tone for this weird religious fantasy and a cast led by Keanu Reeves. They all seem to get it.
4. "Aquaman" (2018)
It's not often that we get a comic book movie that is: full on ridiculous; loves how ridiculous it is; and is made with skill by a legitimately great filmmaker. James Wan's "Aquaman" is all of that, and it's just a wonderful experience.
3. "Superman: The Movie" (1978)
This is the gold standard of Superman movies, and was the best superhero movie bar none for many, many years. John Williams' score soars, and so does the believable and compelling romance between Superman and Lois Lane. The film convincingly blended camp (in the form of Gene Hackman's wonderful Lex Luthor), an epic origin story that actually felt epic, and funny lines. The scene in which Supes and Lois fly together is one of the most beautiful metaphors for new love ever captured on film.
2. "Batman: The Movie" (1966)
Has a timelessness that none of the other films do, and it's just a delight from beginning to end thanks to Adam West's winking Batman and the coalition of villains who can't stop cackling maniacally. Watching it again recently, I found it functions almost perfectly as a parody of the super-serious Christopher Nolan Batfilms, which is incredible.
1. "Batman Begins" (2005)
The most complete film, on its own, in the entire live-action franchise. It's just, like, a regular movie... except it's about Batman. It has actual characters and everything, and Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne even has emotions. It's weird.
1 of 37
How does the latest entry in the DC Extended Universe fare in our rankings?
Marvel may be the dominant force in comic book movies at the moment just through sheer numbers, it's actually DC Comics that has the historical edge. Films based on DC properties go back nearly a century to those ancient Batman and Superman serials, while Marvel didn't really get things going until this century. That's a lot of history -- how do the recent "Birds of Prey" and "Joker" stack up? Let's take a look.
Jeremy Fuster
Box Office Reporter • jeremy.fuster@thewrap.com