Going into the release of the Harley Quinn-led BIRDS OF PREY movie, there was a feeling the film might not get good reviews but it could still make a lot of box office cash. (Very similar to what happened with SUICIDE SQUAD.)
Well... the opposite has happened as BIRDS OF PREY was well liked by critics and audiences who actually went to see it this weekend, yet failed to meet expected projections both domestically and worldwide. BIRDS OF PREY was trending to opening with $50 million domestically and somewhere north of $110 million worldwide.
According to weekend estimates from The Hollywood Reporter, the move failed to reach both of those projections.
BIRDS OF PREY opened domestically with $33 million and took in $81 million worldwide. This is the lowest performing DCEU movie surpassing SHAZAM! and its $53 million opening. (Please note BoP's production budget was in the range of $85 million, but this does not include marketing costs which usually rounds out to an additional $100 million tacked on to its budget for big tentpole features like this.)
So what happened?
The trending thought right now is how the movie should not have been rated-R because a big part of Harley Quinn's fanbase are teenagers who could not get into the theaters here in the U.S. Its rating is mostly due to excessively overusing F-bombs.
There was a clear lack of extreme ultra-violence which needs an R-rating. So take out the unneeded F-bombs and you easily get a PG-13 rating and this would have helped bring in droves of teens to theaters. But Warner Bros. executives could not see how the R-rating cutoff a big source of box office cash from Harley Quinn's youthful fandom.
Oh well. Lesson learned. Maybe.
Perhaps the extended President's Day holiday weekend next weekend could help the box office performance, but as of right now things do not look good for any potential of a sequel or even another Harley Quinn-led solo movie.
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