Some will argue that Birds of Prey was never meant to be a big pic like Suicide Squad with its lower-than-DC-budget (around $97M gross, $84M net).
This isn’t great for Birds of Prey, even if it miraculously muscles its way past $40M this weekend. At a time when Marvel can slap their name atop any superhero movie and open it to $100M-plus, DC has been trying to rebuild post-Zack Snyder’s Batman v. These decisions need to be thought of long and hard during development. What is crucial for Warner Bros, and any other major motion picture studio that wants to compete and rival Disney, is that when it comes to brands and IP, you need to protect them and really ensure the proper production and launch apparatuses are in place to guarantee success (I’ll come back to this point). Rivals believe the exits are alright, just not the kind that take you over the top at the box office. And even though the town loves to use tracking as “the dog ate my homework” excuse whenever a film collapses at the box office, they’re not the ones to blame here for Birds of Prey. Despite Birds of Prey in its final days before opening notching an 81% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, a 4-star PostTrak, and B+ CinemaScore audience exits (same as Suicide Squad and Joker), all of those spurs, which typically work for pics on the big screen, weren’t doing any favors this weekend. The domestic opening is well under the $50M-$55M tracking projection, and under the $45M for which Warner Bros was hoping for, while overseas the forecast was at least $110M. That belongs to the Josh Brolin 2010 western Jonah Hex ($5.3M). This wasn’t the lowest DC opening of all-time for Warner Bros. On the bright side, this will definitely serve as a good lesson for Warner Bros, and if Birds of Prey 2 does happen at some point, the studio surely will choose a better title from the beginning, and will avoid the marketing mistakes it made with Birds of Prey.4th UPDATE, Sunday AM w/final chart: In the wake of hitting highs with Wonder Woman, Aquaman and the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all-time in the 11-time Oscar-nominated and billion-dollar-plus grossing Joker, Warner Bros’ DC hit a pothole with the Suicide Squad spinoff Birds of Prey, opening well below projections with $33.2M stateside and $81.2M worldwide ( $48M from 78 offshore territories). Sadly, this change comes too late, as the film has already suffered the consequences of the studio’s failed marketing plan. Although the rest of the team are well known by DC Comics fans, Harley Quinn is still the most popular of all, so by putting her name on the title, Warner might be able to get the attention of those who wouldn’t even be curious about a movie called Birds of Prey. It has already been confirmed that Warner requested the change to help ticket sales, as shortening it to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey makes it easier to find on theaters’ websites – and, of course, it helps give potential viewers a clearer idea of what to expect from the film.
is being much more straightforward and honest about what the film is about and who the leader really is (after all, it’s Harley who’s telling the whole story). By changing the title to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey, Warner Bros.
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