To what extent is Birds of Prey, which looks (on the surface) like a mix between Justice League and Batman & Robin but with R-rated violence, going to play to non-geeky adults and folks who preferred Bohemian Rhapsody to Rocketman specifically because it was PG-13? The movie did earn solid reviews and I’d like to think word of mouth will spread, but even legs like LEGO Movie 2 (3.1x its $34.1 million opening) or John Wick: Chapter 2 (2.99 x $30.4 million) gets it to $100-$104 million domestic. Yes, the movie is well liked by those who showed up, and films pitched at adult women tend to leg out. Remember when Sony’s Venom stood out alongside A Star Is Born, (the adult-skewing) First Man and Halloween as four-quadrant, PG-13 franchise fare? Yeah, this was the opposite of that. That’s part of why Wonder Woman broke out in 2017, as even some of the few PG-13 female-led action movies ( Salt and the Hunger Games flicks) were hyper violent action flicks. A PG-13 Birds of Prey would have stood out from the crowd, in terms of what’s in theaters and, compared to the likes of Underworld, Resident Evil and Lucy, in terms of being a female-led actioner that kids could actually see. The film opened amid a flurry of R-rated movies, including Bad Boys For Life, 1917, The Gentlemen and (eventually) The Invisible Man. The R-rating made it less unique in the marketplace. Heck, the “comic book movies aren’t for kids!” demos also overlapped with the “Eww… cooties” crowds.Ĩ. Artistic integrity notwithstanding, Birds of Prey didn’t need to be an R-rated movie. The film scored a B+ from Cinemascore, but it played better with younger audiences than older ones. But commercially speaking, the “restricted” rating removed large numbers of potential moviegoers, specifically young fans of the character(s) who couldn’t get into an R-rated film, parents felt uncomfortable letting them see what was a pretty violent action comedy and adults who didn’t feel like springing for a babysitter. let Cathy Yan and Christina Hodson make the movie they wanted. If there’s a single issue to blame, it was that R-rating. The R-rating left kids (and parents with kids) out in the cold. Emancipation of One Harley Quinn' Warner Bros.ħ. Speaking of “R-rated biggie…”Įwan McGregor, Chris Messina, and Jurnee Smollett-Bell in 'Birds of Prey And the Fantabulous. The Will Smith/Martin Lawrence action comedy stole much of the buzz from Birds of Prey both as an R-rated biggie, the post-Christmas event movie and the first biggie of the year. The bat-outta-hell R-rated action sequel vastly overperformed even optimistic guestimates, partially because it was much better than expected. And yes, it’s ironic that a sequel to a massively successful Will Smith movie sans Will Smith got hammered by… a sequel to a massively successful Will Smith movie starring Will Smith. If you’re an infrequent moviegoer who only goes to the big/event movies, there’s a good chance you already used your periodic theatrical engagement for Sony’s well-reviewed and well-like Bad Boys for Life (or 1917, I suppose). If Joker, Green Book and The Lion King make big bucks while Birds of Prey, Widows and Tomorrowland don’t, that’s what will get made at a theatrical level. And, sure, you can say that “ Tomb Raider wasn’t that good” or “ Darkest Minds got lousy reviews,” but money is money. Usually I complain about this in regard to non-comic book or non-franchise flicks that played to empty theaters. It’s possible that we mistook the copious online interest in Birds of Prey (and the Harley Quinn character) for general audience interest, especially among adults. The relative under-performance of Birds of Prey is another example of audiences not showing up for the thing they claim (or at least the media claims) they want from Hollywood. Online excitement doesn’t equal mainstream interest.
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