It's not looking great, puddin'. Having just finished up its second weekend in theatres, Harley Quinn's solo story 'Birds of Prey' has failed to meet the projections put in place by Warner Bros. Despite being estimated to gross $50-$55 million during its opening weekend, already the lowest projections in the history of the DC Extended Universe, 'Birds of Prey' fell short, grossing $32 million domestically and $81 million internationally, causing the unabashedly feminist flick to be labelled a box office flop by many, with Variety stating that the film "disappointed" at the box office and Deadline lamenting that the film "went astray" in terms of commercial success.
That being said, 'Birds of Prey' did also have the lowest budget of any DC cinematic project at approximately $82 million depending on your source, so by the end of their opening weekend they had roughly done enough to recuperate the budget, making it far from an outright failure. Though 'Birds of Prey' is not hitting the heights of 'Wonder Woman', 'Aquaman' nor even 'Shazam!' at the box office, neither it is the complete flop that many mediums are making it out to be. As of this past Valentine's Day weekend, the film stands at an international gross of $145 million, having dropped 48% from its total gross in the opening weekend. Though this percentage sounds sizeable, anything less than a 50% decrease is considered enough to keep a film in the clear. Taking this into consideration, it appears as though 'Birds of Prey' is not a raging, neon success as many fans of the vibrant Harley Quinn had hoped, but nor is it a complete flop - instead, the film seems to be walking a fine line between the two, making a modestly quiet splash in the box office, so unlike the character herself.
It seems unlikely that 'Birds of Prey' will regain its lead in the box office now that it has been booted out of top place by last weekend's release 'Sonic the Hedgehog', which stormed the box office with an opening weekend of $55 million USD. According to Screenrant, believing the lengthy original title to be at fault for Harley Quinn's failure to impress, Warner Bros consented for many US film theatres to advertise the film as 'Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey' instead of 'Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)', perhaps in the hopes that foregrounding the iconic DC character would attract more viewers, though 'Sonic the Hedgehog' continues to dominate in spite of this subtle change. Harley Quinn may be able to take Black Mask down, but it looks like a supernatural blue hedgehog may pose more of a challenge.
Harley Quinn versus DC
Let us turn to the other cinematic outputs from the DC Extended Universe to truly get a sense of how 'Birds of Prey' has fared at the box office. The most similar DC picture to 'Birds of Prey' in terms of budget is 'Shazam!', the 2019 film starring Zachary Levi. That film had an $85 million budget compared to the $82 million of 'Birds of Prey'. However, 'Shazam!' made considerably more than 'Birds of Prey' in its opening weekend alone, grossing $53.5 million in comparison to the $32 million earned by 'Birds of Prey'. Though this could come down to many factors, amongst which are the R rating of 'Birds of Prey' restricting viewers and 'Shazam!' being a more obviously traditional superhero flick, the statistics do show that compared to 'Shazam!', 'Birds of Prey' had a relatively weak opening weekend.
It seems unfair to compare 'Birds of Prey' directly to some of DC's big-budget films such as 'Wonder Woman', 'Aquaman' and 'Suicide Squad', given that they were all operating with approximately double the budget and so had to gross more just to break even. Furthermore, the statistics at the box office are not necessarily the only measure of a film's success. Though 'Suicide Squad' made $133.6 million during its opening weekend, for example, it stands at a pitiful 27% rating on Rotten Tomatoes in comparison to the 79% held by 'Birds of Prey', suggesting that though the financial success of 'Birds of Prey' is debatable, critically it dominates 'Suicide Squad' by a wide margin.
In short, 'Birds of Prey' is not the box office success that many fans of the bat-wielding villainess had hoped. It fell short of the already low projections and was almost immediately pushed out of top spot by another more family-friendly flick. However, critically it remains respectable and it has recuperated enough to cover its budget, making it far from a complete failure. Perhaps we should not consider 'Birds of Prey' as a high-flying success nor a flop. It's simply treading water, hoping to be the next 'Joker' (not DC, but the character is irrevocably tied to the world) or 'Wonder Woman', but never quite managing to launch our complex, loud-mouthed, semi-villainous protagonist to the heights fans would love to see her reach.
