Birds Of Prey (2020)

Early-Bird Cameo can be very beneficial

Plus more often than not it’s movies that make big names, rather than small names risking failure.

It’s important to remember that to a general audience most comic book characters are not household names. Movies that the audiences get invested in are the way they become household names, whereas a lack of former knowledge will have significantly less affect on a movie’s success than fans like to claim.

One of the reasons we’re starting to see more movies with less exposed characters is that studios are starting to realize this. DC used to be attached to the hip with the idea that only characters people already know sell, and got stymied when that failed while Marvel’s movies about guys like Thor or Ant-Man or the Guardians of the Galaxy made bank.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Feb 19th 2020 at 2:49:59 AM

Granted, it took A LOT for those to change, the two thor movie are bad, the third did great in part for being a comedy, Antman was....meh, and the second was good, and all that is because marvel build a reliable reputation of doing Ok movie that sometimes were very good but never outright bad.

Which is what they did. Harley is a big name and a lot of people knew Black Canary and Huntress from t.v. shows. The most obscure character in this movie is Cass (who sadly is nothing like her comic counterpart).

Even then, this isn't a hard and fast rule given the very first successful Marvel film was Blade, a character even most comic fans don't care about.

Really pre-established audience awareness of the characters isn't that necessary.

As long as the film looks interesting people will flock to it....... Though of course there's plenty of other factors to that.

It really isn't. People watch movies about things they have no prior knowledge about all the time. It's the bulk of what people watch.

And that's where Birds of Prey seemed to falter, the marketing focused so much on Harley that the B-tier characters (Huntress and Black Canary) they were trying to introduce felt more like sidekicks. I haven't seen the movie yet but it could have a similar problem with just not convincing audiences of how awesome these characters are.

Yeah, it seems pretty accepted so far that one of the biggest things hurting Birds of Prey is that the marketing sucks ass, with word of mouth being very good but still basically having to make up the entire difference by itself, which... yeah.

And most people are saying its a 'bomb' because its not making as much money as other comic book films. ie- Its not making a billion ergo its a bomb.

But if you compare it to say...Ford vs. Ferrari a film with a similar budget and similar opening box office its doing just fine.

So WHY was Fv F being lauded left right and center as "A success, crushing the competition" while Bo P "Is a bomb performing far below expectations"? I can think of a few...

Dunno what the expectations were, but the domestic numbers are kind of worrying.

Is it really bad?

Break even point is 250 million according to variety.

It’s worth noting Ford V Ferrari opened in way less theaters and had a significantly lower advertising budget. So it was making more money per theatre than BOP was, and significantly more because of Oscar legs.

I do think that BOP will most likely break even. It’s going to need a huge collapse or really strong legs to go off that proverbial knife edge. That being said, Gotham City Sirens? Probably cancelled. The wave of feminist action and action/comedy films from Ghostbusters 2016 through Charlie’s Angels? That’s probably going the way of female superheroes after Catwoman. And anything related to Suicide Squad will probably take extra care to advertise its differences from the original. Expect the ads for The Suicide Squad to mention "Directed by the guy who made GOTG" a lot.

I also expect to see a lot of confusion when Wonder Woman 84 and Black Widow both make bank.

Edited by Beatman1 on Feb 20th 2020 at 9:05:27 AM

Oh man. That sucks.

I don't want the studios to take th is as don't do female superhero films when it was more down to forcing an r rating and shitty advertising.

I often thought that it was damn lucky that WW was such a hit despite the lack luster marketing.

Anyone who thinks female superheroes are the problem will be proven wrong by Black Widow and Wonder Woman 84. What I do expect is for female led properties not part of a bigger IP to be toned down, them not to lead the IP, and the advertising to be a lot different.

Wondy has Justice League cred, same with Black Widow and Avengers. The BOP aren’t that well known, and Harley sans Joker just isn’t attractive to most.

Edited by Beatman1 on Feb 20th 2020 at 9:23:06 AM

God I loved the sequence where Harley took on the cops with confetti and a beanbag gun. Not sure if that or her getting her mallet was more fun.

I agree. This movie was a ton of fun and that scene is the perfect example to demonstrate that.

Though it was weird how all the cops seemed to have no guns.

That thought can stick with you.

Being Gotham, i would imagine a lot of budget cuts.

That makes sense.

No wonder cops can't do shit in Gotham.

.... I know you’re joking but uh, given real world context with the militarization of police and rampant, unpunished police brutality that’s not funny.

Well then i'm sure you can think about that when next seeing Harley beat up police.

Yes & this a city where the population is held at the mercy of a guy who runs around with a skull helmet & calling himself Black Mask.

And that's without getting into the other violent oddities of the city like untouchable clown gangsters or the literal crocodile man on the prowl for dinner.

Or the masked wrestler on super roids usually carrying really heavy weaponry. Although not having a gun when the Scarecrow is around could be considered a good thing.