Although it has received very good reviews, Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) is not doing as good when it comes to box office numbers, and while there are a couple of reasons behind that, one of the biggest is that the trailers focused too much on Harley Quinn. DC’s movie universe (unofficially titled DC Extended Universe) is going through some changes after its first wave of movies didn’t perform as expected, especially Justice League, so a couple of characters will be retconned – as is the case of Batman – and others will be explored through a different angle, like Harley Quinn.
The psychologist-turned-criminal and sometimes antihero was introduced in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad back in 2016, with a big focus on her relationship with the Joker (Jared Leto). Harley Quinn is back in Birds of Prey, which follows her life post-break up and her alliance with Huntress, Black Canary, and Renee Montoya to protect Cassandra Cain from crime lord Roman Sionis a.k.a. Black Mask. Birds of Prey balances action and comedy, and introduces new characters from DC Comics that will surely appear in future movies in the DCEU, but sadly, the movie isn’t performing as expected at the box office.
Birds of Prey has the worst opening for a DC movie in over a decade, so Warner Bros. took some emergency measures in order to sell more tickets. The studio requested that the title be changed to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey on the websites of various theaters, so potential customers can have a clearer idea of what the movie is about. But the damage is already done, and it goes back to the movie’s marketing campaign, which focused too much on Harley Quinn.
Birds of Prey’s Trailers Ignored The Rest of the Team
The Birds of Prey trailers focused a lot on Harley Quinn and how her relationship with the Joker was over (for real this time). Although the rest of the team appeared in the trailers, it all revolved around Harley’s new freedom, which makes sense given that, to mainstream audiences, Harley is known as the Joker’s sentimental and criminal partner, and marketing her break-up served as a big hook. Harley is also the most known character of the bunch, all thanks to her appearance in Suicide Squad and to Margot Robbie’s presence in the film industry growing more and more – and yet, the title was Birds of Prey and the actual Birds were just supporting (or background) characters in the trailers.
The rest of the team are obviously not strangers to DC Comics fans, but to those not familiar with the comics, and just by watching the trailers for the movie, they all remain unknown. The studio didn’t take into account that they were trying to sell a movie with “Birds of Prey” as main title and instead focused on Harley Quinn, whose name appears on the second part of the title, which is often left behind (because it’s too long). After watching the movie, it can be somewhat justified that Warner didn’t include them more in the trailers as the actual team doesn’t show up until the very end of the movie – although it’s a team Harley isn’t part of, but was the one who brought them together. In the end, those bad decisions by the studio when it comes to the trailers of Birds of Prey have hurt the movie, possibly beyond repair, as it remains to be seen how effective the title change ends up being.