It’s funny to think that Birds of Prey, once considered an under-performer at the box office, is currently the fourth highest-grossing movie of 2020. Not that it should have been labeled a “disappointment” in the first place. Birds of Prey has made nearly 2.5 times its budget, and as director Cathy Yan pointed out to the Hollywood Reporter, “There were also undue expectations 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.” It may not have made $780 million, like another fourth-wall-breaking comic book character, but by any other measure, Birds of Prey is a financial (and critical) success.
Speaking of that R-rated, fourth-wall-breaker: in the same chat with the Hollywood Reporter, Yan was asked about the comparisons between Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) and Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), and whether she was bothered by them.
“It didn’t disgust me that people were comparing us to Deadpool. I love Deadpool; I think it’s a great movie, but we were very much trying to do our own thing,” Yan answered. “I can’t underline enough how it was a risk. I do have to thank the studio for supporting a movie that was never going to be four-quadrant. It was R-rated the entire time, and we never talked about changing the rating to get more people into the theater.”
Yan continued:
“I’m very proud of how the movie performed and the way that it could speak to the people who really responded to it. It was always going to be this weird, quirky movie — by design — just like Harley Quinn.”
Birds of Prey is available on VOD; Harley Quinn season two is out, as well.
(Via Hollywood Reporter)