BIRDS OF PREY Underperforms With $33.3M Domestic Bow; Now Sits At $81.3M Worldwide

The numbers are in, and as expected, Cathy Yan's Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn) has failed to take flight at the box office over the course of its opening weekend...

By MarkCassidy - Feb 09, 2020 08:02 AM EST

Filed Under: Birds of Prey

Things weren't looking good for Birds of Prey's opening weekend numbers on Friday, and now it's official: the R-rated girl-gang movie has come in almost 20 million below expectations with a $33.2 million bow. Believe it or not, this marks the worst start for a DC comics adaptation since the much-maligned Jonah Hex back in 2010. It also replaces Shazam! ($53M) as the lowest opener in the DC Extended Universe.

The Margot Robbie-led adventure did fare better overseas with a $48M international cume, which brings its global total to $81.3M. The movie hasn't secured a China release, which means the only major market left to come is Japan.

BIRDS OF PREY Review: A Deliriously Entertaining, If Sometimes Uneven DC Comics Adventure
Birds of Prey obviously still has time to recover, but some are starting to believe the R-rating may prove to be a hurdle since it pretty much sidelines Harley Quinn's main fan-base. Regardless, BOP had a relatively small budget (about $84.5M before marketing costs), so a soft opening won't necessarily hurt it long-term.

Will positive reviews and word-of-mouth help get more butts on seats? Keep an eye out for updates, and if you've seen Birds of Prey, be sure to check out our spoiler breakdown below.

Simply click on the next button below!

Animated Opening

Image result for harley quinn animated series

Birds of Prey begins with an awesome animated sequence, as Harley Quinn brings us up to speed on her chaotic life by touching on her past relationships and previous identity of Doctor Harleen Quinzell.

It's here that we learn Harley is actually bisexual (or at the very least, experimented a little when she was younger) and that her toxic relationship with The Joker has now ended (he dumped her).

Heartbroken Harley

Image result for birds of prey and the fantabulous

Miss Quinn is not in a good place after splitting from Mr. J, and is drowning her sorrows in the Black Mask club. When Roman Sionis' driver insults her, she comes down hard on his legs, almost snapping them in two.

After hearing her crew laugh at her situation, Harley decided to sever ties with Joker for good and sends an explosive tanker into the place where her criminal persona was "born," Ace Chemicals. Unfortunately, when word gets out that that Harley is no longer under The Joker's protection, a lot of very bad people come looking for revenge.

Renee Montoya

Renee Montoya is introduced as the cop investigating the Ace Chemicals explosion, which soon puts her on Harley's trail. She's also looking into some gangland murders committed by the "Crossbow Killer."

Montoya has a mole in Black Mask's gang (who is now on crutches after being very rude to HQ) and believes Sionis runs one of Gotham's biggest criminal empires, but her coworkers and superior dismiss her theories.

After disobeying one to many orders to drop her case, Renee is suspended and forced to hand over her badge and gun.

Black Canary

Dinah Lance, aka Black Canary, works as a singer at Sionis' club. It's revealed that Montoya knew her mother, who had the same superpower and was a crime-fighter back in the day (presumably the original Black Canary).

When Sionis witnesses Dinah's impressive fighting skills and makes her his new driver, Renee attempts to convince her to become her new informant. Lance agrees, but only when she find out someone close to her is in danger (more on that later).

Huntress

Huntress, known as the Crossbow Killer to the cops, is shown taking out gangsters throughout the movie but doesn't really come into play until the third act when her origin is revealed.

As a child, Helena Bertinelli witnessed the murders of her entire family by a rival mob boss and vows revenge. After being trained up as a lethal mercenary, she takes the mantle of Huntress and returns to Gotham to eliminate those responsible.

One of the gunmen? Roman Sionis' sadistic right-hand man, Victor Zsasz.

Cassanra Cain and a Shiny MaGuffin

Image result for birds of prey cassandra cain

Cassie Cain is a young pickpocket known to Montoya and Lance, who both care about her well-being. Unfortunately, the kid makes the mistake of lifting a very expensive and important diamond (no, it doesn't contain dick pics) from Zsasz, which leads to a furious Sionis putting a half-million bounty on her head.

Cassie is arrested shortly after and taken to the GCPD, but someone knows where to find her.

Harley Cuts and Deal

Harley, meanwhile, is busy dealing with the various goons that crawled out of the woodwork once the word got out that Joker was out of the picture when she's picked up by Sionis' men. The villain is also aware of HQ's new relationship status, and plans to kill her... because he can.

Harley overhears Zsasz talking about the diamond situation, and in order to avoid having her face sliced off (Black Mask's sick little signature), she offers to track down the kid and retrieve the merchandise.

"I'm here to Report a Crime"

What follows is easily the standout action sequence of the movie, as Harley goes all Terminator with a glitter gun and takes out an entire police station to get her hands on Cain.

At one point, she notices a mugshot of Boomerang on the wall and says, "hey, I know that guy." Not a cameo, as such, but a fun little callback to Suicide Squad all the same.

Quinn finally nabs Cain, only to discover that she's swallowed the diamond. The pair then hold up in Harley's apartment.

The Fun House

Harls takes a shine to the kid, but once she realizes that Sionis has an army after both of them, she decides to turn her over to take some of the heat off. Quinn calls Roman and agrees to hand Cain over at one of The Joker's old lairs.

Sionis sends Zsasz and Canary - who he now suspects is an informant - to the fun house, but Montoya and Huntress are already there.

When Victor tries to get Lance to slice Cain open and retrieve the diamond, the ladies team up to take him out. At this point, a masked-up Sionis and a lot of his men have arrived, and Harley convinces the others to put their differences aside and fight their way out.

Canary Cry

Another stellar action set piece here, as the girls team up to battle their way out of the fun house. They eventually make it outside, but Montoya is shot (she's wearing some of Harley's old body armor) and they're pinned down.

Fortunately, Lance has a secret weapon, and for the first and only time in the movie she unleashes her Canary Cry. This leaves her too weak to fight but a path is cleared, and Harley gets her skates on to chase down Sionis, who has managed to grab Cain.

Black Mask's Explosive Sendoff

Image result for birds of prey black mask

If you were hoping Black Mask would stick around for future movies, well, there's very little chance of that happening!

Quinn corners Sionis at the end of a peer, but he keeps her at bay by holding a knife to Cassie's throat. Harley apologizes for turning her in, telling Cain that she makes her want to be a "less terrible person." Cassie then admits to stealing a ring from Quinn, before holding up the pin from a grenade she just stuffed in Sionis' pocket.

She then knocks the villain off the peer as he explodes.

The Birds of Prey

The ladies head for morning margaritas and engage in some banter as Cassie finally feels that diamond begin to move. She runs to the bathroom and is followed by Quinn, who steals Canary's car and drives away, much to Huntress' amusement.

Montoya, Canary and Huntress then form the Birds of Prey, and we get a glimpse of some comic-accurate (well, more comic-accurate) costumes. Harley does not join the team, and instead sets up the "Bad Mother[frick]er" detective agency with Cain.

Has Harley Quinn gone soft? She dares you to tell her so!

"Batman is F..."

As you've already heard, there's no mid or post-credits scene. Instead, we get Harley making fun of the people who stuck around by promising to tell them a secret about Batman before the audio cuts off.

Irritating? A little. Funny? Definitely. Basically, the perfect way to end this movie.

What did you guys think of Birds of Prey? Let us know in the comments.

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376 Comments

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

tmp3 - 2/9/2020, 8:35 AM

We all thought this would get bad reviews and make a lot of money, we never thought to consider it would get good reviews and make no money

TexasAvenger - 2/9/2020, 8:38 AM

@tmp3 - I'm looking at show times for today and all the afternoon ones have plenty of seats available. 😬 I haven't checked the evening, but I'm not trying to go tonight. I rather go during the day.

dracula - 2/9/2020, 8:45 AM

@tmp3 - Hopefully it at least makes Shazam level money. Unless its a well known characters, seems general audiences are not interested in superhero movies that arent flash, giant effect heavy films. Plus the marketing hurt it.

WakandanQueen - 2/9/2020, 8:50 AM

@tmp3 - OT, Uncut Gems outgrossed Lady Bird and is now A24's highest grossing release in North America.

tmp3 - 2/9/2020, 8:53 AM

@WakandanQueen -

kylo0607 - 2/9/2020, 8:56 AM

@TexasAvenger - I went yesterday here in the UK, which was Day 2 since release.

The screening was almost entirely empty...

WakandanQueen - 2/9/2020, 8:57 AM

@tmp3 - More like

tmp3 - 2/9/2020, 8:57 AM

@WakandanQueen - Lets meed in the middle

LadiesmanBumble - 2/9/2020, 8:39 AM

Not surprised that it couldn’t even break $100m. This movie was really nothing special.

LadiesmanBumble - 2/9/2020, 8:42 AM

@LadiesmanBumble - Let me correct my statement, I’m not surprised that BoP couldn’t make $100m WW.

OT: You know what would make this website great, besides getting rid of that damn “Next” button, BEING ABLE TO EDIT POSTS!!! Come on @JoshWilding, give the people what they want!

WakandanQueen - 2/9/2020, 8:39 AM

If this doesn't have a great Valentine's Day/President's Day boost and develop some sexy legs, it's in danger of losing money for Warner Bros - and that on a modest $85M budget! They really dropped the ball with the marketing on this one. It's actually a pretty solid film (not Shazam or Wonder Woman level, but I liked this one better than Aquaman ngl).

tmp3 - 2/9/2020, 8:41 AM

@WakandanQueen - How did Suicide Squad have such good legs lmfao, did 21 pilots stans and hot topic employees just go in droves to see it

WakandanQueen - 2/9/2020, 8:44 AM

@tmp3 - I mean, it had the worst-case scenario type of legs for a blockbuster August release...

JustAChillDude - 2/9/2020, 8:44 AM

@tmp3 - the answer to your question is yes. plus it came out in the summer as well so that helped.

tmp3 - 2/9/2020, 8:45 AM

@WakandanQueen - $130m opening to $320m+ gross isn't that bad lol, especially compared to BvS' 1.99x multiplier

WakandanQueen - 2/9/2020, 8:47 AM

@tmp3 - It had all the month for itself though. Imagine if it was actually good.

soberchimera - 2/9/2020, 8:57 AM

@WakandanQueen - Wasn't my cup of tea AT ALL, but the CBM genre is so expansive now that not every film coming out under its umbrella is gonna appeal to me. Looking forward to BW and WW though.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

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BIRDS OF PREY Underperforms With $33.3M Domestic Bow; Now Sits At $81.3M Worldwide

The numbers are in, and as expected, Cathy Yan's Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn) has failed to take flight at the box office over the course of its opening weekend...

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Renee Montoya

Black Canary

Huntress

Cassanra Cain and a Shiny MaGuffin

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"I'm here to Report a Crime"

The Fun House

Canary Cry

Black Mask's Explosive Sendoff

The Birds of Prey

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