![]() The thought goes: The better the movie does, the more it feels like a victory for representation, and vice versa. ![]() The pressure of its own importance to superhero movies shapes Birds of Prey and the conversation surrounding it. There was pressure on Crazy Rich Asians’s box office numbers, for example, because its success dictated the future of Asian American representation when a movie dares to represent something other than the status quo, the movie’s supporters are forced to cross their fingers. But the concern that the success of each movie in a marginalized genre impacts that genre’s future comes with the territory. The attention paid to Birds of Prey and its cohort and reading their success as a bellwether isn’t unique to women-fronted superhero movies. It has happened in the past with disasters like Catwoman and Elektra, and those box office busts have directly led to the clear lack of women-led superhero movies compared to their male counterparts. Yet, because Birds of Prey is now just the third film after 2017’s Wonder Woman and 2019’s Captain Marvel in both the modern-day DCEU and MCU to focus on women superheroes, there’s a nagging worry that studio executives will take it to mean people won’t see women-led superhero movies. Thanks to the glut of male superhero-led movies, that Thor movie you didn’t see and the beleaguered Justice League are easier to write off as flash-in-the-pan flops when they don’t make big box office numbers. ![]() Despite Birds of Prey, Warner Bros.’s Harley Quinn spinoff, earning great reviews, and despite making an estimated $81 million worldwide in its opening weekend, the film has already been labeled a commercial disappointment in the DC Expanded Universe canon.īut the silly thing is that, because of how rare women-fronted superhero movies are, Birds of Prey’s disappointment is a bigger deal to fans looking for more representation in their superhero movies. ![]()
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