While critics, including ours, have dug the frenetic, girl-power action of Birds of Prey, critical acclaim doesn’t always mean much in the hard reality of ticket sales. And for a superhero film opening in February, things don’t always go as planned.
As reported by Deadline, Birds of Prey’s opening weekend was… not great. Breaking a streak of relatively healthy successes, Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn romp opened at #1 at the box office but only managed to gross $33.2 million in the United States, with a total of $81.2 million globally. That’s well below Warner Bros’s desired opening of $44 million domestically.
There’s a whole myriad of factors that could go into a movie like this performing below expectations—the fact that a lot of people disliked Suicide Squad, the early February release, the fact that it’s a new franchise, etc. Lots of things can go wrong with marketing and releasing a film. What probably isn’t to blame is the fact that this is a smart, women-led film. But I have a feeling that’s what’s going to be litigated the most when a lot of folks review these numbers.
Birds of Prey is still in theaters for a while yet, and you should check it out if you’re so inclined.
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