Box Office: ‘Harley Quinn: Birds Of Prey’ Finally Passes $200 Million

With a mediocre $2.09 million opening weekend in Japan, its final major territory, Birds of Prey (review) has, at the very least, passed $200 million in unadjusted global grosses. The film had a Fri-Sun opening on par with Shazam may only earn around $5-$7 million when the dust settles. And, no, this isn’t necessarily about coronavirus as Japan has yet to have a comparative outbreak. Audiences didn’t care about the Cathy Yan-directed and Christina Hodson-penned movie any more than they did here and abroad, alas.

To be fair, many of the movies we think of as global blockbusters didn’t necessarily break out in Japan. None of the Hunger Games or Twilight Saga films made more than $7 million in Japan while Ghost in the Shell made just $9 million and Man of Steel made (inflation/deflation aside) $9 million in their respective theatrical releases. Oh, and Aquaman grossed $14.8 million while Joker grossed $46 million.

Of note, the first Frozen earned $269 million. As noted three years ago, that 2013 release was a perfect storm situation. Anna and Elsa were voiced by Sayaka Kanda and Takako Matsu (two respected Japanese singer-actors) while the marketing emphasized the female empowerment angle right as Japanese society was beginning to come to grips with societal chauvinism. Frozen II earned “just” $122 million over there, still huge by any rational standard and still enough to push the Disney animated sequel to $1.45 billion worldwide.

The R-rated DC Films flick has earned 2.43x its $82 million budget. It’ll eventually break even when it comes to early VOD this Tuesday. It’s a disappointment, for sure, but it’s not a colossal box office disaster on the scale of Dolittle ($223 million on a $175 million budget) or Call of the Wild ($110 million on a $110 million budget). With theaters essentially closed in North America, the Margot Robbie/Ewan McGregor action comedy will end with around $84.2 million domestic from a $33.01 million domestic launch, a “perfectly okay” 2.55x multiplier but a clear disappointment nonetheless.

Even with strong reviews and solid word-of-mouth, the film was kneecapped by its R-rating, which bet on older Harley Quinn viewers at the expense of young kids who were presumably all set to show up for a female-led comic book adventure. As noted here and there, there are plenty (comparatively speaking) R-rated female-led action movies, think Lucy, Atomic Blonde, Resident Evil or Underworld, but fewer that are PG-13. And even a number of those (Hunger Games, Salt, etc.) are arguably too graphically violent for young kids anyway.

There will be plenty of folks curious enough to want to see the Harley Quinn-and-friends caper but not curious enough to do so in theaters, or unable to find a babysitter, who will check it out now that it’s available at home during a quarantine. There will be plenty of folks who saw the movie in theaters and loved the hell out of it who will relish the chance to buy it a little bit earlier than anticipated. With theaters essentially closed in North America, Birds of Prey earned $84.2 million domestic, just under John Wick: Chapter 2 ($91 million from a $30 million debut on the same weekend in 2017).

Once again, in terms of overall grosses, it essentially performed like John Wick: Chapter 2 ($171 million worldwide on a $40 million budget) but with a budget closer to John Wick: Chapter 3 (which grossed $321 million worldwide on a $75 million budget). The miss stings more than it otherwise might both due to what had been a solid winning streak for DC Films (save for Justice League, they had been on an artistic and commercial hitting streak since Wonder Woman) and because Warner Bros. had a pretty awful 2019. Birds of Prey was supposed to be the big 2020 kick-off flick.

Alas, with the DC Films flick floundering and The Way Back being yet another “everybody says they want this but nobody goes to see this” grown-up drama (which also debuts on electronic sell-through on Tuesday), all hopes were resting not with Scoob (a commercial coin toss that now, speculation alert, may end up following Trolls: World Tour’s path to “premium VOD”) but Wonder Woman 1984. And since we now have no idea when that Gal Gadot/Chris Pine flick will actually open (it’s still dated for June 5, but we’ll see), the Warner Media company is in a pickle.

Anyway, Birds of Prey has at least earned $200 million worldwide, which is pretty decent for an R-rated female-led action movie when compared to the likes of the Underworld films, Atomic Blonde ($100 million on a $30 million budget in 2017) and Red Sparrow ($151 million/$69 million). Hell, coronavirus aside, had the film played in China and played even as well as Tomb Raider ($78.4 million in 2018), we’d be looking at around $285 million worldwide, which would absolutely put the film in “yeah, it’s a hit” territory.