BIRDS OF PREY Director Cathy Yan Addresses The Film's Box Office Disappointment, Saying, "We Weren't Ready For This Yet"

DC’s Birds of Prey movie ended up making $201.8 million at the worldwide box office. It’s not a terrible number, but considering the film had a production budget of $85-$100 million and a marketing budget of around the same amount, the movie didn’t make a huge profit.

The film definitely under-performed and director Cathy Yan recently opened up about the film’s box office disappointment in an interview with THR. She explains that this proved audiences weren’t ready for a movie like this yet:

“I know that the studio had really high expectations for the movie — as we all did. 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.”

For me, I just think that the story should’ve been better. I love the character Harley Quinn, I’m excited to see stories for her told on the big screen. There are so many great stories to tell! I just think she deserved better than what we got.

I know some people won’t agree with me, there are a lot of people that did enjoy the movie! Yan went on to explain that she felt the film helped a lot of people, “especially a lot of women and younger people.” She said:

"What was definitely beyond expectations was some of the positive stuff, such as the real global reach of the film and getting really wonderful notes from people around the world who felt like they were seen for the first time in a movie like this. They felt like they could identify with the characters on screen, even though they were in a heightened world — a world with stocked grocery stores. (Laughs.) It was still a world that was very aspirational. A lot of people — especially a lot of women and younger people — really felt like their voices, their type of people, they themselves… were represented for the first time on the big screen. When we first set off to make the movie, making some of those choices — whether it’s in casting or even in the way the characters look or dress — was somewhat deliberate, but I didn’t really think about the global impact of those decisions. So, that was really nice.”

It’s great that there were people out there who enjoyed the movie and connected with it and the characters. I’m sure this won’t be the last DC movie that centers around Harley Quinn. I imagine she will be back after James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad and when she does come back, I hope there’s a great and wild story waiting for her.