Yeah, certain sections of fandom seem to have had it in for this movie since before it's release but they really don't make any kind of genuine impact on a movie's fortunes. Social media is nowhere near as representative of real life as it wishes it was. I realise the hypocrisy of saying that on an internet forum also.
BOP has been badly affected by it's R rating, especially in the US. This was never a film that was gonna have the mass appeal of, say, a Spider-Man movie. Restricting it's potential audience even more was just lunacy. Take away the R rating and you could have added an extra 20 million or so onto it's US box office takings so far. The Deadpool route was NOT the right approach for a movie like this.
Those figures I posted before for Friday, which were just projections, were actually wrong. BOP ended up doing around 7 million on Friday, not the 9 million initially forecast. I stand by my comments that this movie will certainly break even though.
Last edited by WillieMorgan; 02-15-2020 at 01:23 PM.
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Here in the UK BOP is rated slightly differently. It has a 15 rating, which means there is more leeway with the teenage audience. Consequently, the film has posted decent enough box office business over here.
It's not broken any records of course but the rating is slightly more lenient and it shows.
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As far as I'm concerned, the BoP should be a PG-13 franchise. You'd want young girls to look up to Black Canary and the other Birds, and supposedly Harley's popular with younger audiences.
I mean, Cassandra Cain's not in the movie, but they missed a huge opportunity there nevertheless.
I think a R rated movie titled “HARLEY QUINN” would have been much more lucrative. Having the Birds of Prey title and a R rating together obviously was detrimental.
But again, at least the product itself is good. This movie could have new life once it starts streaming. Since it has good word of mouth people may be excited to watch it in their homes.
A bat! That's it! It's an omen.. I'll shall become a bat!
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THE CBR COMMUNITY STANDARDS & RULES ~ So... what's your excuse now?
Just got back from seeing this. As a representation of the Birds of Prey IP by itself, it falls shot. But as a film in itself, it was greatly enjoyable!
I think a softer rating by cutting out some of the language and toning down some (but not really a lot, honestly) of the violence would have helped it reach a wider audience. And I don't think it should have been called BOP. It's an ensemble, but Harley is still clearly the main focus. But it works very well as a sort of "back door pilot" for the BOP at large and an introduction to the beginning stages of these characters. While Margot Robbie is of course the main highlight (and still the most perfect CBM casting ever), Black Canary and Huntress were awesome too. The Canary Cry was probably my favorite single moment.
Really liked Rosie Perez as Montoya as well. Wish we could have had Bullock as her partner in a few scenes.
Naming the girl Cass is the only major drawback. If she had been Holly Robinson or something, it would have been fine. As an adaptation of Cassandra Cain it is absolutely terrible, but Ella Jay Basco obviously isn't at fault for that at all. She was good for what her role was, and her dynamic with Harley was really sweet.
This is also the ONLY time I've found Black Mask and Zsasz entertaining.
Would love a proper BOP film with Canary, Huntress and Montoya being joined by Batgirl. I wasn't entirely digging their outfits at the end there, though. I think we could get a proper Nicola Scott style costume for Huntress and have it look good fairly easily.
Same here. My thoughts go back to this movie all the time. Best 7,00 Euros I spent all week and it made me buy BoP by Gail Simone on Amazon, plus the movie tie-in for Huntress (already own it... Cry for Blood, a classic) and Batman Arkham Black Mask. In a movie like this I don't mind plotholes or twisted adaptations of classic characters. Its entertaining and a better action movie than all of the Fast and the Furious/Transformer crapfests combined.
You live and learn and one thing that I've definitely learned this weekend is that Box Office Mojo has become very unreliable since it's redesign. Here's what I HOPE are BoP's box office numbers after it's second weekend:
DOMESTIC (42.5%)
$61,673,302
INTERNATIONAL (57.5%)
$83,600,000
WORLDWIDE
$145,273,302
If that's not exact then it can't be too far off. I believe it's a four day weekend over in the States. Whilst these figures are not great it's not a particularly bad hold for a second weekend that saw Sonic fly out of the gates.
For the record it's good to see Sonic set off so well. It received some legitimate complaints over Sonic's original design and, instead of treating those criticisms with disdain, crying about spoilt man-babies and then wondering why it's subsequent box office is then so appalling, the producers of the film took notes and made the necessary visual improvements. The other Hollywood studios would do well to take note of that.
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