Birds of Prey and *deep inhale* the fantabulous emancipation of one *gasp* Harley Quinn has come to theaters and seemingly “gone” just as quickly. One week after release the big story of the Box Office is centered on Sonic the *deep inhale* hauntingly bad design choice that was later altered to be pretty good but still not entirely faithful to the source material because where are his tan arms *gasp* Hedgehog.
Warner Bros is probably a bit stumped about why the latest film in the DCEU under-performed to such a degree. After all, things looked like they were on the upswing. The increasingly negative receptions to Zack Snyder’s Superman/Batman/Justice League movies (even if the last of which was a failure shared by Joss Whedon) seemed to be in the rear-view mirror. Wonder Woman was a big hit. Aquaman was a big hit. Shazam!, while not making huge money at the box office, nevertheless was a critical hit and has seen its popularity grow. Joker wasn’t technically a DCEU film (it’s a DC property, but not part of that loosely-connected universe of films) but still earned a billion dollars and won its lead actor an Oscar for his performance.
Did we leave anything out?
Oh yeah, Suicide Squad, which grossed an okay amount of money but ultimately was just as loathed as the early (loathed) movies of the DCEU. You know how a movie sometimes fails to catch on in theaters but then, on home video, gains a second life? The opposite happened with Suicide Squad. It made a decent chunk of change in theaters but by the time it got to home video public opinion on it had turned so harshly that the film has become a running gag.
Guess which movie Harley Quinn most-closely resembles? Go on and guess!
The two-fold problem with Birds of Prey is that it’s made with the same frenetic, senseless editing-style that doomed Suicide Squad, especially during that movie’s first act. Birds of Prey actually ruins its first two acts with a weird narrative/editing decision to start the movie with act two and tell the first act in flashbacks. The third act is strong but by the time you get there, you’re just worn out by the start-and-stop way it tells its story.
That’s assuming you haven’t taken an ice-pick to your ears by then, because…
The other biggest problem with the movie is Harley Quinn herself. The Joker’s number one squeeze is a wonderful character and Margot Robbie brings her to life in a vivid way, but Harley Quinn was always ever just a supporting character. Even in Suicide Squad, where she had a prominent role, she was frequently surrounded by half a dozen other characters to bounce off of and share the screen with. In the Animated Series, where she made her debut, she was always the hench-woman to Joker, nothing more.
Here, even though the Birds of Prey are technically co-stars, they play second (and third) fiddle to Harley, who is given the lion’s share of screen-time. Robbie plays the part perfectly, but it’s a part that is, by design, obnoxious and grating. The ear-aching parody-accent and over the top mannerisms are supposed to be kept to small doses. Instead she’s in 70% of the scenes and most of those feature her interacting with just one other character. It’s too much of a character that’s supposed to annoy you.
No wonder audience members say they like Harley but didn’t like this movie; they used her wrong.
So now that it’s out and the post-mortem has begun, let’s put ourselves in the shoes of the completely unpredictable, sometimes competent, sometimes laughably not, WB/DC film execs and try and guess how they will respond to Birds of Prey and the blah blah blah’s box office disappointment.
“EVERYBODY OVERREACT!”
Birds of Prey was heavily marketed as a “female” superhero movie. Nevermind Wonder Woman, Cpt. Marvel, or the upcoming Black Widow, DC certainly is capable of thinking the failure of BOP is because fans “just don’t care about female-driven superhero movies.” I’m sure there’s already a hundred “herp derp get woke go broke” articles and YouTube videos online arguing this very thing. This movie didn’t fail because it had women in it. I shouldn’t even have to type that sentence in 2020, but there you go.
Alternately, someone might conclude that the extended universe around the Batman character is not viable for movies. After all, Suicide Squad was a quasi-Batman spinoff and it crashed and burned after release. Birds of Prey is another Batman-esque property, even though the one character most-connected to Batman (Cassandra Cain) was an entirely different character from her comics counterpart. Still, some “very smart person” in the upper echelon of DC will say “stick to the A-Grade heroes.” Nevermind the fact that Disney/Marvel built their cinematic empire on the backs of B, C, and even D-Grade heroes before ever getting their hands on Spider-Man, X-Men, or F4.
Someone’s going to overreact, it’s just a question of where they point their hysterical gun.
On the other hand…
“NOBODY PANIC; NOBODY LEARN ANYTHING!”
Birds of Prey, as said, didn’t fail because it had too much of the XX chromosome. It failed because the movie was a narrative mess that didn’t know how to tell its story in a way that made for a fun experience. It had four female stars but only two of them were worth building the movie around. It’s a movie called “Birds of Prey…” but the Birds were barely in it while the ellipsis was given way to much to do.
But of course, someone at DC is going to think they didn’t go far enough. There’s always some idiot in the room who rides the “double down” train. Usually this person is marginalized but sometimes, after a flop, he or she is given a platform to be heard. This WB/DC exec will surely say the editing needs to be CRAZIER. This person will say we need MORE solo-outings for characters, regardless of whether the story around them is any good. These are the kinds of people who still think “comic book movie” is a fad-genre that will sell no matter how stupid or contrived it is.
DC’s recent history should disprove that, but whatever.
Comic Book movies are popular because MARVEL comic book movies are popular. Marvel comic book movies are popular because they are competently made and fun to watch. It’s not rocket surgery.
Finally…
“QUICK, LET’S DO NOTHING!”
Perhaps worse than either the “burn it all down” panic or the “more of what sucked” people are those who are so detached from anything more than the bottom dollar that they just apathetically do nothing. Birds of Prey has made about twice its budget. By the time it leaves theaters it will have made “a profit.” Will it have made “a big profit”? No. It will have made some money but that’s it.
And for some, that’s good enough.
There are lessons to take away from this movie’s disappointing box office run. Hopefully DC will take them to heart and make the right adjustments going forward. Better ideas, better scripts, better editing, better marketing; those are the recipes for a successful comic book franchise. Marvel isn’t a multi-billion dollar/year franchise because “Iron Man has always been the coolest, right?” No, they’re the top banana in Hollywood because they’re making competently-produced movies that people want to see. I wanted to see Birds of Prey…until I did. Then I wished I hadn’t. I’ve yet to have that reaction to an MCU film. WB/DC apparently still has much to learn.
Whether do before their next comic book movie goes into production is TBD.
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