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Proud Ryu
Deshi Basara
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2007 3:36 pm Posts: 5322 Location: The Interstice
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Re: Birds of Prey: What went wrong?
R Rated movies starring young females in the sci-fi/action/horror area are very rarely lucrative. First problem.
It was a major problem making this as Harley Quinn's first starring movie, without her name as the title (obviously we're not counting the enormously stupid subtitle that no one remembers).
Birds of Prey should have come later. I enjoyed the 2002 tv series somewhat, but it was more of a guilty pleasure, and it only lasted one season. Harley Quinn is not even primarily associated with this team in the Batman universe. The title to general audiences probably sounds like a nature documentary or a bad horror flick.
Also as big of a fan as I am of all/most things Batman, I still have never seen the trailer that I recall - I haven't been to a ton of movies lately but I saw Charlie's Angels for example. The posters I notice are absolutely horrendous.
Name-wise there's no one else in the cast of the titular team who is known or compelling.
Side note: this weekend I was actually watching Beware the Batman (2013) this weekend, and almost totally forgot this movie was out.
When I see what Harley looks like in the marketing, I'm not interested. She does not have any of her classic looks, but rather looks like a drag queen version of herself in a pink lipstick summer girl power flick. It does not work at all.
Obviously it's not great that it came on the Oscar weekend of Phoenix's Joker, universally infinitely more liked than the Leto one associated with the Robbie Harley.
It was also touted by some as social justice trash, which a lot of people are not interested in.
In light of all this it's not surprising to me at all that it didn't light up the box office.
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Mon Feb 10, 2020 11:46 am |
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Proud Ryu
Deshi Basara
Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2007 3:36 pm Posts: 5322 Location: The Interstice
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Re: Birds of Prey: What went wrong?
This is seriously the worst movie poster I can ever have recalled seeing.
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Mon Feb 10, 2020 11:51 am |
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Chippy
KJ's Leading Pundit
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 4:45 pm Posts: 63026 Location: Tonight... YOU!
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Re: Birds of Prey: What went wrong?
It's 10x better than the Spider-Man Homecoming one.
_________________trixster wrote: shut the fuck up zwackerm, you're out of your fucking element trixster wrote: chippy is correct
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Mon Feb 10, 2020 11:57 am |
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publicenemy#1
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 12:25 am Posts: 18870 Location: San Diego
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Re: Birds of Prey: What went wrong?
I like that poster a lot. *shrug*
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Mon Feb 10, 2020 12:10 pm |
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DP07
Homo Dperious
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 2:26 am Posts: 14472 Location: Everywhere
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Re: Birds of Prey: What went wrong?
DP07 wrote: Malcolm wrote: DP07 wrote: And yeah almost nothing about this film made it appealing to women, except the fact that it’s stars were women, which isn’t enough. Hm... It was written by, directed by, and stars women. Did the "average" woman need more ladylike things? Pink tea parties, bake-offs, fashion shows, dream weddings--all beautifully lit at the height of gorgeous sunny days It’s almost the opposite of frozen or twilight. And frozen is about an ice queen, twilight is about vampires and werewolves, hardly meant fit female cliches. I don’t think having a main character who refers to herself as a psycho bitch is going to draw in a big female audience. BOP tries to temper the darkness with humor, without any big laughs in the trailer. Harley acts like the person who’s smiling and laughing, trying to convince themselves and everyone else that everything’s ok, when it’s not. Frozen, Twilight, Hunger Games, Divergent, Ocean’s 8, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel etc, maintain a sense of optimism through it and despite it all. After seeing the movie I have to take this back. The marketing didn’t capture the energy of this movie. So I guess that’s what went wrong. Although I read it’s because they didn’t have much to work with given reshoots and such.
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Tue Feb 11, 2020 9:07 pm |
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Thatguy
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Joined: Thu Jul 22, 2010 9:07 pm Posts: 435
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Re: Birds of Prey: What went wrong?
The R rating didn't fully match the content.
Also this is what happens when Margot Robbie has a few zany ideas for a film, and the studio just gives her freedom to do it, despite very few people around Robbie saying it was a good idea. A number of these ideas in the final film go against what fans like or wanted. Also fans in general really didn't want this film, and weren't really asking for this film. While some of Robbie's ideas were implemented, not all were based on insider word. WB execs apparently were furious after the first test screenings, as some of Robbie's ideas did not play well at all, so reshoots occurred to salvage the film.
_________________The Dark Knight Rises.
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Sun Feb 16, 2020 3:47 pm |
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Jack Sparrow
KJ's Leading Idiot
Joined: Thu Dec 31, 2009 8:15 pm Posts: 36923
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Re: Birds of Prey: What went wrong?
The general audience would know very little about Robbie's inputs to the film. Tbh we know very little of how much of that info is true now that the movie flopped. It could be WB trying to pin the blame on Robbie to wash their hands. The desperate change in title sure feels that way.
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Sun Feb 16, 2020 5:09 pm |
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MadGez
Dont Mess with the Gez
Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2004 9:54 am Posts: 22676 Location: Melbourne Australia
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Re: Birds of Prey: What went wrong?
We took the kids and their friend to see Sonic at the drive-in. They loved Sonic but at the same time they kept glancing over to the screen on the right and were hyped that Harley Quinn was on screen. While the R rating was probably essential, cant help but think they lost a chunk of the audience most interested in seeing the character in action.
_________________
What's your favourite movie summer? Let us know @
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Sun Feb 16, 2020 6:47 pm |
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Barrabás
llegó a la casa vía marítima
Joined: Sun Aug 05, 2007 4:53 pm Posts: 6138 Location: la gran casa de la esquina
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Re: Birds of Prey: What went wrong?
Harley Quinn just isn't relevant/popular enough. Opening to about a third of Joker seems accurate. I think a PG-13 rating bumps it up to low 40s at the most.
_________________ .
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Sun Feb 16, 2020 7:18 pm |
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Flava'd vs The World
The Kramer
Joined: Sat Oct 23, 2004 11:36 am Posts: 23760 Location: Classified
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Re: Birds of Prey: What went wrong?
MadGez wrote: We took the kids and their friend to see Sonic at the drive-in. They loved Sonic but at the same time they kept glancing over to the screen on the right and were hyped that Harley Quinn was on screen. While the R rating was probably essential, cant help but think they lost a chunk of the audience most interested in seeing the character in action. Was it though? There’s no nudity and the violence isn’t that much crazier than PG13 superheroes.
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Sun Feb 16, 2020 10:27 pm |
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Chippy
KJ's Leading Pundit
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 4:45 pm Posts: 63026 Location: Tonight... YOU!
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Re: Birds of Prey: What went wrong?
They should have marketed it like the John Wick movies. And they probably should have just had it be a Harley Quinn title and have people not expect it to be a BoP film.
_________________trixster wrote: shut the fuck up zwackerm, you're out of your fucking element trixster wrote: chippy is correct
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Mon Feb 17, 2020 11:25 am |
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MadGez
Dont Mess with the Gez
Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2004 9:54 am Posts: 22676 Location: Melbourne Australia
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Re: Birds of Prey: What went wrong?
Flava'd vs The World wrote: MadGez wrote: We took the kids and their friend to see Sonic at the drive-in. They loved Sonic but at the same time they kept glancing over to the screen on the right and were hyped that Harley Quinn was on screen. While the R rating was probably essential, cant help but think they lost a chunk of the audience most interested in seeing the character in action. Was it though? There’s no nudity and the violence isn’t that much crazier than PG13 superheroes. I haven't seen it so wasn't sure. Perhaps not. Missed opportunity then. And agree with all - it should have been titled "Harley Quinn". Birds of Prey either pisses off fans or means nothing at all to the general public.
_________________
What's your favourite movie summer? Let us know @
http://worldofkj.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=85934
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Tue Feb 18, 2020 8:53 pm |
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Jiffy
Forum General
Joined: Sat Dec 18, 2004 2:27 pm Posts: 6145 Location: New York
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Re: Birds of Prey: What went wrong?
Yeah, there was really no reason for this to be rated R in light of the actual content.
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Tue Feb 18, 2020 9:04 pm |
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Jack Sparrow
KJ's Leading Idiot
Joined: Thu Dec 31, 2009 8:15 pm Posts: 36923
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Re: Birds of Prey: What went wrong?
I still don't think Harley Quinn is/was going to make much difference to its BO because they clearly marketed it as such regardless. They really should have released those reviews early to generate buzz OR should have somehow tried to connect it with other movies maybe even JP's joker. Having it connected to Leto's Joker didn't help it at all. The audience would not have wanted to jump on to a sinking ship.
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Wed Feb 19, 2020 9:52 pm |
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