HARLEY QUINN: BIRDS OF PREY Director Cathy Yan Reflects On The Movie's Box Office Performance

HARLEY QUINN: BIRDS OF PREY Director Cathy Yan Reflects On The Movie's Box Office Performance

To mark the Digital release of Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey, Cathy Yan has been talking about her work on the film, and now weighs in on how its box office performance was addressed online. Check it out!

By JoshWilding - Apr 04, 2020 03:04 AM EST
Filed Under: Birds of Prey
Source: The Hollywood Reporter

The Hollywood Reporter recently caught up with Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey director Cathy Yan, and pointed out to the filmmaker that despite reports of the movie being a box office flop, it made 2.4x its production budget. Ford v Ferrari, in comparison, made 2.3x its budget but cost $16 million more to produce than the DC Comics adaptation.

The ironic thing is that James Mangold's movie was considered a box office hit, and when the trade asked Yan if she was frustrated by the apparent double standard from reporters, she talked in detail about Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey's commercial performance back in February. 

"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," Yan explained. "There were also undo 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."

"That was an extra burden that, as a woman-of-color director, I already 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 definitely do feel that everyone was pretty quick to jump on a certain angle."

The movie definitely didn't perform the way you would expect a comic book adaptation to these days, so that could explain at least some of the responses. Now, though, Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey has the chance to find a second life on VOD, and Yan was also asked whether her Tweet led to Warner Bros. deciding to give the film an earlier than expected release.

"[The] idea that Birds of Prey can just be another option of something to watch in these times just seemed appropriate and really smart," she said. "So, I just independently did that, and it seemed to get a lot of responses. Then, I heard from [producer] Sue Kroll and my team that it was already in the works at Warner Bros. So, it worked out really nice."

Have you guys checked out Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey on VOD yet?

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Kumkani
Kumkani - 4/4/2020, 3:44 AM
Shouldn't have been R-rated. Or called Birds of Prey.
bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 4/4/2020, 3:50 AM
I think the angle most people jumped was actually that it was an (unnecessarily) r-rated Harley Quinn movie disguised as a Birds of Prey movie
LSHF
LSHF - 4/4/2020, 5:09 AM
@MalseMarcel - I agree on both points. I guess they were hungry for those "R-rated" dollars (Deadpool) and forgot or didn't consider the large number of young females who wanted to see it.
johnnymarr
johnnymarr - 4/4/2020, 3:58 AM
Part of the problem is the fact that WB/DC keep trying to sell Harley Quinn as a huge main star, when she probably would fare better in the way she was originally intended by her creator: as a funny, interesting supporting character.
JustALurker
JustALurker - 4/4/2020, 5:30 AM
@johnnymarr - WB should know that:
Harley Quinn =\= Deadpool.
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