Ignoring the standalone Joker movie that takes place in a separate universe, DC movies have been earning less money with each new release since the $166M opening weekend of Batman vs. Superman (which I hated) . Rather than turn around DC’s downhill trend, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) has fallen even farther with a $32M domestic opening weekend, which is half the opening haul of the previous lowest DCEU movies Aquaman ($67.8M) and Shazam ($53.5M). Oddly, Birds of Prey has great critic and audience scores, and Margot Robbie and Ewan McGregor both have solid fan bases. Harley Quinn, Black Mask, and other characters even form a direct connection to the popular world of Batman. So, what happened? Is it because of “blatant sexism,” as some have suggested?
Suicide Squad Spin-Off
Let’s get this out of the way: Suicide Squad was a big mess. Some people enjoyed it, but most people were underwhelmed with the paper-thin characters, boring Will Smith, and the dancing CGI Enchantress. The low quality and bad reactions helped to push the DC Expanded Universe into a death spiral. However, Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn depiction was easily the high point of the movie, so it’s not a big surprise Warner Bros. decided to continue her character despite most of the other characters and movies not receiving their own sequels. However, the trailers for Birds of Prey were arguably weak because they felt too much like Suicide Squad, with Harley Quinn, an anti-hero team, a flamboyant Joker-ish take on Black Mask, and colorful yet grungy costumes. If you’re like me, you regret the time you lost watching Suicide Squad, so reminding everyone that this movie is a Suicide Squad spin-off may not be the best strategy to get people into seats. Fool me once, you know. Also, having the word “Fantabulous” in the already long movie title was probably enough to make some people roll their eyes and re-watch Bad Boys for Life instead.
R Rating
However, if you’re one of the people who thought Suicide Squad was edgy and cool, you’re probably too young to get into an R-rated movie. Birds of Prey doesn’t have the mature themes of Logan or Joker that justified their R ratings, and consequentially the excessive violence and language feels more like a kid showing off than story content. If you want the blood sprays and f-bombs in your action comedy movie, that’s fine, but remember R-rated comic book movies are few and far between for a reason. Kids who enjoyed the irreverent humor and action of say, Guardians of the Galaxy, probably would enjoy a PG-13 Birds of Prey, but an R-rating cuts them out of the theater, along with parents who don’t want to grab a babysitter. That’s a huge chunk of comic book audiences, and Birds of Prey doesn’t pretend it’s anything deeper than comic book cotton candy, so it’s unlikely to draw in the non-comic people who were intrigued by Logan or Joker.
Girl Power
Don’t start your rage tweeting- this is the “why it didn’t bomb” section of the article. The failure of Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey (as it’s now called) doesn’t prove that there’s no market for women-led superhero movies. Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel already killed that argument, with Black Widow and Wonder Woman 1984 set to bury the remains later this year (and I’m pretty jazzed for Wonder Woman 1984). Men also weren’t boycotting the feminist film, with 51% of audience members reportedly men. The problem is neither gender really showed up, period. The difference is the other woman-led movies had far better marketing, stronger casting, weren’t R-Rated, and the superheroines actually resembled their comics counterparts. This movie shoehorned Harley into a group she’s never been a part of, left out the strong leader Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, and made the remaining members unrecognizable from the comics. The lesson here is to respect the material if you want the fans, keep it PG-13 if you want the younger masses, and don’t blame sexism to cover your own shortcomings. Because that punchline never works.
Jason Talks Movies 