The they is Margot Robbie. And it is her movie after all. She makes the movie she wants to make. The movie will live or die based on how many Harley Quinn fans show up. And as Harley Quinn comic books outsell Birds of Prey comic books,
it will be comic book fans that show up for the movie. DC doesn't even publish a Birds of Prey comic book anymore, that is how little interest comic book fans have in Birds of Prey. So depending on just Birds of Prey comic book fans to show up is a losing proposition. They couldn't even support a comic book, let alone a movie.
Comic fans are a tiny minority. However IMO it seems the HQ movie is not generating that much buzz. Three days in and there are only 10M views from WB Pictures. The Joker and Aquaman got way more views in only one day, and Aquaman killed at the box office while Joker seems to be headed that way as well. I really do believe that there's a lack of interest for this movie. I do think WB has overestimated Robbie's performance of HQ.
Production Budget for Birds of Prey was only 75 million, lower than Shazam.
So they movie only needs to make like 200M to be a hit. (Shazam made 364M off a 100M production budget)
Again, WB is releasing this in Febuary--so they aren't expecting a big summer tentpole.
Kind of weird to think with a small budget of 55-64M Joker will probably end up beating Shazam and Harley Quinn at the box office. And for all the MCU haters yes Joker will easily beat some MCU movies as well.
Tell me why anyone who isn't a fan of the comics or the character would go and see this movie? This isn't Batman, or Superman, or Wonder Woman, or even Aquaman. It's Harley Quinn and a bunch of characters that no one outside of comic fans will know. Sure, that will draw in some non-comic fans (and by comic fans, I'm also talking comic book movie fans. I understand that there are those who only watch the movies and don't read the books), but if they want to make a lot of money, they either need to bring in the fans in droves, or the movie needs such incredible word of mouth that it does draw in casual viewers. And I haven't heard that many good things about the movies yet. To be fair, it's still months away, but I really don't see that changing.
Even as a comic fan IDGAF about BoP. Dont get me wrong I love Dinah and hope she comes off well since I'm not a fan of her Arrowberse adaptions. But yea Huntress is fine but as a team I never loved them or formed any bond with any if there stories. I'm going to see this movie. Because Will Smith being Will Smith and Harley took what could have been one the worst CBM ever for me and made it fun. I had fun watching suicide squad even if I didnt think it was good. Ssme boat as Venom for me. I'm all in on Venom 2 cause of Tom hardy. Also as bad as SS was I think alot of young people liked it. My brothers friend had a baby and named it Harley because that movie. Never read or watch anything else with Harley. She loved the Joker/Harley relationship from that movie. So I think the General audience might have latched onto Harley in SS more then most of us in the nerdom. I agree they shoulda just made a Harley movie but iono I think she needs a team to prevent her from becoming annoying. And BoP probably wasnt getting made anytime soon anyway.
It's a Harley Quinn movie and she is popular with the GA and has a fanbase beyond comics, it's in a month with very little competition, and it looks fun (at least in the previews). Not saying it'll be a hit here, but I see it making a profit pretty easily.
Edit - Even if they drove the fan in droves to see it, it would barely make a dent. Again, you are way overestimating how much a difference we make. Fans are small potatoes movie audience wise.
What was the lesson? Lesson learned every single X-men movie with Wolverine playing significant time did better than one without abomination that is X3 is the highest-grossing X-film way more than Dark Phoenix. It looks like use your star character is the lesson that should be learned.
All of those movies were panned, and didn't give the suits enough confidence to continue. So they rebooted.
IIRC, SS actually made more than Guardians and yet the critical reception was so poor that they rebooted as well. They want something that will ensure that movie goers will return, and on that, SS didn't deliver.
Harley isn't that big a star, and I don't see a good reception for a movie that wimps out the minority characters for the whitest character ever.