Birds of Prey( And The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn ) conductor, Cathy Yan, expresses her displeasure at the narrative surrounding the film’s box office performance. Releasing earlier this year when movie theaters were still open for business, the Margot Robbie-starring picture had the lowest box office opening of any DC Comics movie in the past decade. Birds of Prey has since gone on to earn more than doubled an annual budget, but that hasn’t done anything to dispel the notion the movie was a box office disaster.

Following her stand-out performance as Harley Quinn in 2016 ‘s Suicide Squad, it was only a matter of time before Robbie reprised the role again. Though there were many different vehicles in the works for Robbie’s Harley, she opted to pursue Birds of Prey, recognizing it would showcase more of DC’s lesser known personas, like Black Canary and Huntress. Cathy Yan was hired as lead and Christina Hodson as screenwriter, rounding out the predominately female-driven movie, both in front of and behind the camera. Yet, while pundits praised Birds of Prey and, in particular, the representation of its brides supporters, the movie’s apparent failure at the box office was taken a number of some as more proof that superhero movies performing gals exactly aren’t successful.

Related: Birds of Prey Was A Box Office Disappointment( But Can It Be Saved ?)

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cathy Yan discussed the expectations placed on Birds of Prey ahead of its secrete and how that likely affected the narrative surrounding its box office performance. Specifically, Yan was asked if she felt there was a double-standard applied to Birds of Prey’s performance when is comparable to a movie like Ford v Ferrari, which checked a same return at the box office in relation to its budget.

Yeah, I think that if you actually look at the details of the budget breakdown … I know that the studio had really high expectations for the movie — as we all did. There were also undo possibilities on a female-led movie, and what I was most disappointed in was this idea that perhaps it proved that we weren’t ready for this yet. That was an extra burden that, as a woman-of-color director, I previously had on me anyway. So, yes, I think there were certainly different ways you could interpret the success or lack of success of the movie, and everyone has a right to do that. But, I emphatically do feel that everyone was pretty quick to jump on a certain angle.

Box office earnings are only one behavior to evaluate a film’s success, but they’re often used as the earliest indicator. Plus, if a movie play-act well at the box office, then it’s more likely to earn a sequel – something that , nowadays, is simply a must-have for any superhero movie looking to grow a franchise. Of direction, there are also examples of movies “thats been” immense box office successes and yet has received a total so poorly they tanked any a blueprint for future installments. Meaning, there’s genuinely no hard and fast rule when it comes to using a movie’s box office as the performance indicators of its success, and as such, a film’s performance can be used to make an argument that runs either way.

In the case of Birds of Prey, there’s no affirming it fell short of hopes, but that isn’t fairly the same as the movie being a complete failure. After all, it’s among the better DC movies in recent years, giving a positive response from both supporters and pundits. Its lackluster box office performance also hasn’t appeared to hurt feeling for Warner Bros.’ upcoming DC films, including James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, which has Robbie again reprising Harley. It’ll be interesting to observe exactly what assignments WB takes away from Birds of Prey, be it forestalling R-rated comic book movies or lesser known personas in the future. Hopefully, they won’t completely abandon the world they’ve created with Harley and the Fledgling of Prey, and supporters can be found in them all going together in some capacity.

Next: Birds Of Prey Is Nothing Like Other Superhero Movies (& That’s Great )

Source: THR

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