Birds of Prey BoP Box Office Thread

[jmc]

I don't get it. They marketed it before the big IT 2 release, and I saw trailers and spots constantly during the CW superhero lineup, including the crossover. I saw trailers every day. I still see trailers. It's got ads on Twitter nonstop, and the cast did the typical talk show appearances. I get maybe thinking the marketing could have featured different stuff to hook some people, but it definitely got good exposure. I think people just weren't interested and that the title may have caused some confusion.

It was a film that no-one asked for, marketed to no-one in particular. In the end, it was little more than a vanity project for an actress who thought she could stamp her mark on a character who's appeal she did not understand, to an audience that did not exist. It's frankly as arrogant as Hollywood gets. Lessons learned for everyone with this.

 

[Jonwo]

I think the issue is they are bombing or underperforming a lot of the properties for the last year, it's starting to look like some way of them running the studio is wrong, WB usually has a few big hits in a year, now they're relying on one big DC property per year, otherwise they're just failing left and right in the last 12 months

Every studio has a couple of flops per year. Paramount for example hasn't had a $100m+ grosser in quite some time and Universal just had two huge write offs in Cats and Dolittle, Warner Bros didn't have a great 2019 but they're in pretty good shape and 2020 will improve on 2019 simply because the slate is a lot stronger.

I don't think we should be calling for people to lose their jobs just because of one misfire. People seemed to forget the marketing people are actual people and they are likely as bummed by how BOP did and working out what they did wrong.

 

[Iceman]

Dolittle having a UK skew wouldn’t be surprising to me at all.

 

[brandeezy89]

According to this THR article, WB is currently playing the blame game internally over the BO

With Warner Bros. and Warner Max, Is AT&T Setting Up a Sibling Rivalry?

Adding to the concern is the fact that the film studio has been on a cold streak, with Birds of Prey’s disappointing performance setting off a noisy round of internal finger-pointing. (Warners sold off 50 percent of its big 2019 hit, Joker.) The studio does have some potential hits coming, including the Wonder Woman sequel and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights.

 

[Greenlite]

Every studio has a couple of flops per year. Paramount for example hasn't had a $100m+ grosser in quite some time and Universal just had two huge write offs in Cats and Dolittle, Warner Bros didn't have a great 2019 but they're in pretty good shape and 2020 will improve on 2019 simply because the slate is a lot stronger.

I don't think we should be calling for people to lose their jobs just because of one misfire. People seemed to forget the marketing people are actual people and they are likely bummed by how BOP did and working out what they did wrong.

I don’t think I have called for people losing their jobs but they certainly need to reflect the strategies as a whole thus I said WB has issues lately.

Good IPs most with good receptions bombing or underperforming over the last year, Doctor Sleep, Pikachu, Birds of Prey, Godzilla, Shazam, one or two misfires is fine, but I can think of 5

This is the studio that gives you Joker and American Sniper, and opens critically bashed films to 100M+ only 2-3 years ago

 

[Greenlite]

‘Birds Of Prey’: Marketing Is Not To Blame For Disappointing Box Office

In terms of other comparisons, John Wick: Chapter 2 jumped 78% on Tuesday while LEGO Batman jumped 84% on day five while LEGO Movie 2 jumped 38% on its first Tuesday. The LEGO Movie opened six years ago, before “cheap ticket Tuesday” was a thing, so its 10% Tuesday drop really isn’t a fair comparison. Although The LEGO Movie was the leggiest of all of these related releases, earning 3.74x its $69 million debut for a $258 million domestic cume. A multiplier like LEGO Batman (3.3 x $53 million) and LEGO Movie 2 (3.12 x $34 million) gets Birds of Prey to $102-$109 million domestic. Even legs like Kingsman (3.5 x $35 million), Ford v Ferrari (3.74 x $31 million) and LEGO Movie gets Birds of Prey to, at best, $123 million domestic.

 

[Micromind]

Eh, you can't compare a LEGO Batman movie, which is animated CGI movie targeted at All ages (especially younger audience) whereas BoP is 'R' rated all woman team movie.

John Wick had the benefit of support by male audience, which seems to be missing for BoP, which is not really surprising considering female teamup movies haven't done well in past (Charlie's Angels, The Kitchen, Ghostriders) to say nothing about negativity campaign that some have started against this movie.

 

[Micromind]

So, I'm not expecting a multiplier like LEGO Movie or LEGO Batman or Kingsman or Ford v Ferrari for Birds of Prey, such expectations will lead to disappointment.

 

[Sithborg]

Hopefully, the holiday gives it a boost this weekend. Really, crossing $100 mil is absolute best case scenario.

 

[OutOfBoose]

Sonic will ruin this movie's whole career.

 

[kguillou]

Sonic will ruin this movie's whole career.

Wouldnt that be something? The headlines next week....hoo boy. Cannot wait to see the thread discussions. Lol

 

[MadVillainy]

Just reading through this thread, can we please stop with the "no one asked for this movie" thing. I've seen it a few times on here. It's so dumb and not why a movie fails

 

[Holy Slapper]

Sonic will ruin this movie's whole career.

Damn, it looks like a comfortable Fresh at RT so far.

 

[Erzengel]

Every studio has a couple of flops per year. Paramount for example hasn't had a $100m+ grosser in quite some time and Universal just had two huge write offs in Cats and Dolittle, Warner Bros didn't have a great 2019 but they're in pretty good shape and 2020 will improve on 2019 simply because the slate is a lot stronger..

Schoob (Scooby Doo) - May (Animated movie, I think of this more like the Adams Family that only made 200+ and it's really a Pixar/Disney World with Illuminations or Dreamworks successes mixed in)
Wonder Woman - June ($800M and higher or bust)
Tenet - July (Nolan movies usually do well, however not as high as TDK or TDKR)
Conjuring Sequel - Sept (Usually go around $300M)
Sopranos Prequel - Sept (There'll be interest but what's comparable like the Sex and the City series which was around $400M which was 11 years ago)
Godzilla vs. Kong - Nov (You either have the original Godzilla that grossed $524M and a sequel that did $386 to Kong that did $566M)
Dune - Dec (Are we looking at another Blade Runner 2049?)

Am I forgetting any movies? If you are looking for respectable numbers, I think they are in good shape but if you're expecting $1B movies, I would only put money on WW84.

 

[SomeOldGuy]

 

[Iceman]

Please be a good weekend hold.

 

[NotNickFury]

See, I hear a lot of folks saying Wonder Woman 1984 will break a billion, and yeah, I'm excited for that film, but for some reason, I don't see it reaching that threshold. That or I don't see where that confidence comes from. If I end up being wrong, that's perfectly fine, but I just feel like at best it could reach 900 million, and even that would be topping what the first film made.

Don't know how competitive the summer is next year- granted there's no Endgame to take the wind out of everyone else's sails- but again, if I'm wrong, I'm wrong.

 

[Erzengel]

See, I hear a lot of folks saying Wonder Woman 1984 will break a billion, and yeah, I'm excited for that film, but for some reason, I don't see it reaching that threshold. That or I don't see where that confidence comes from. If I end up being wrong, that's perfectly fine, but I just feel like at best it could reach 900 million, and even that would be topping what the first film made.

Don't know how competitive the summer is next year- granted there's no Endgame to take the wind out of everyone else's sails- but again, if I'm wrong, I'm wrong.

I'm not necessarily confident that any movie this year will gross over $1B and would have varying degrees of surprise depending on which one does. Even last year's 9 releases that grossed over $1B, I was only surprised with Captain Marvel, Aladdin, Joker & Far From Home.

 

[Jonwo]

Schoob (Scooby Doo) - May (Animated movie, I think of this more like the Adams Family that only made 200+ and it's really a Pixar/Disney World with Illuminations or Dreamworks successes mixed in)
Wonder Woman - June ($800M and higher or bust)
Tenet - July (Nolan movies usually do well, however not as high as TDK or TDKR)
Conjuring Sequel - Sept (Usually go around $300M)
Sopranos Prequel - Sept (There'll be interest but what's comparable like the Sex and the City series which was around $400M which was 11 years ago)
Godzilla vs. Kong - Nov (You either have the original Godzilla that grossed $524M and a sequel that did $386 to Kong that did $566M)
Dune - Dec (Are we looking at another Blade Runner 2049?)

Am I forgetting any movies? If you are looking for respectable numbers, I think they are in good shape but if you're expecting $1B movies, I would only put money on WW84.

There's also In The Heights which could do solid business, The Witches, King Richard and also Tom and Jerry. They have a few smaller films like The Way Back but they will be moderate successes.

 

[SomeOldGuy]

Please be a good weekend hold.

Fwiw boxoffice.com is predicting $15.6 million for the three-day (which would be a 53% drop, which just about any cbm would take) and box office report is projecting a bit over $20 million for the four-day. Both seem a little conservative to me but we’ll see.

 

[Erzengel]

There's also In The Heights which could do solid business, The Witches, King Richard and also Tom and Jerry. They have a few smaller films like The Way Back but they will be moderate successes.

No musical has ever done high box office numbers since Grease. Phantom, Rent, Cats (I know.), Les Mis, Sweeney Todd, list goes on.

Edit: Forgot about Mama Mia which did $600M. But more times than not a musical doesn't do that well.

Tom & Jerry falls under the Scooby Doo umbrella.

A bio drama of the Williams sisters and their father isn't going to light up the BO.

And the Witches? Who's to say how this remake will do.

 

[MadVillainy]

If WW didn't make a billion (which I would've bet money that it wouldve) I don't think that WW84 will

 

[Erzengel]

It's a very light year.

 

[Sithborg]

Just reading through this thread, can we please stop with the "no one asked for this movie" thing. I've seen it a few times on here. It's so dumb and not why a movie fails

To an extent, I think it applies to franchises that toss in a film that breaks the mold. It can affect hype. I think Solo is the perfect example of that type. I mean, I do agree that a good portion of the geekdom wasn't asking for this film, but that is for reasons that are best ignored.

 

[Greenlite]

Fwiw boxoffice.com is predicting $15.6 million for the three-day (which would be a 53% drop, which just about any cbm would take) and box office report is projecting a bit over $20 million for the four-day. Both seem a little conservative to me but we’ll see.

Birds of Prey’s ultimate fate will be decided this coming weekend. If it holds akin to a LEGO sequel/spin-off (-39% for the weekend), then that’s good. It drops closer to a Fifty Shades sequel (-55%), that’s bad. If it drops like John Wick: Chapter 2 (-46%), well, that’s something of a draw. Broadly speaking, Warner Bros. is hoping that it has the domestic legs of a LEGO movie and the overseas oomph of a Fifty Shades sequel. And if its global cume really ends up closer to a Conjuring movie (around $320 million) than Dark Phoenix, Terminator: Dark Fate and Men In Black: International (around $260 million), then the DC flick will be a mild hit and a minor disappointment.

From Scott Mendelson, so not sure if he's accounting the 4-day weekend or not, a 40% drop based on a 4-day weekend would be just under 20M, which I think is a good result, will see