The DCEU is a bit of a mixed bag, and its best team-up movie has gone largely overlooked. Fortunately, its now more accessible than ever.
The unified vision of the DCEU cinematic universe never quite materialized, but its best team-up movie, Birds of Prey, is one of several DC movies now available to watch on Netflix. Despite some disappointing box office failures and publicized behind-the-scenes drama for DC, the timeline of DCEU movies contains some gems that dont quite get the appreciation they deserve.
Despite positive reviews, Birds of Prey seems to get a bit lost in the shuffle when discussing DCs best movies. Whether its because of the movies lower stakes or Covid lockdowns stifling pop-culture discussion a month after its release, theres never been a better time to hop into this wonderful entry in Harley Quinns DCEU tenure. Moreover, as a self-contained story, it can be viewed without any knowledge of the rest of the DCEU.
Birds Of Prey Is Great But Underperformed
Even though Birds of Prey stars Margot Robbie as the delightful Harley Quinn, one of the DCEU’s most beloved actor/character combinations, it does not rank highly among the DCEU box office performances. Birds of Prey made $205 million worldwide, but only about $84 million domestically, according to box office data website Box Office Mojo. Although it is by no means the worst DC movie, those figures place it at number 10 out of 14 DCEU films ordered by box office receipts. Furthermore, because of Covid theater closures, two of the films that were ranked lower had limited releases. See the full rankings below courtesy of Box Office Mojo.
DCEU Movies |
Lifetime Box Office Gross |
---|---|
Wonder Woman |
$412,563,408 |
Aquaman |
$335,061,807 |
Batman v Superman |
$330,360,194 |
Suicide Squad |
$325,100,054 |
Man of Steel |
$291,045,518 |
Justice League |
$229,024,295 |
Black Adam |
$168,152,111 |
Shazam! |
$140,371,656 |
The Flash |
$108,133,313 |
Birds Of Prey |
$84,158,461 |
Blue Beetle |
$72,488,072 |
Shazam! Fury of the Gods |
$57,638,006 |
The Suicide Squad |
$55,817,425 |
Wonder Woman 1984 |
$46,801,036 |
It is evident that Robbie’s mediocre box office performance in Birds of Prey did not deter him from his role as Harley Quinn, who would later co-lead the cast of James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. However, the rest of the Sirens werent so lucky. Nothing came of the talks about a Gotham City Sirens movie. Aquaman and the Lost Kindom marks the official conclusion of the DCEU, and it appears that this iteration of characters like Black Canary, Huntress, and Cassandra Cain will only appear in a single feature film.
The plot centers on Harley Quinn, who becomes a target after splitting from the Joker, until she joins an all-female superhero team to take on a criminal boss. The former psychiatrist is insane and has broken a man’s limb or kept a hyena as a pet, among other unthinkable acts.
The eighth movie in the DC Extended Universe is called Birds of Prey, and it comes after the box office hit Joker. The film was directed by Cathy Yan, a woman, which added to its overall “fabulous” quality and prevented the male gaze from appearing. Remember the evil doll from Suicide Squad? She wore skimpy costumes that weren’t appropriate for taking on enemies? The Birds of Prey director made sure that every costume was realistic rather than impractical.
One ideal way to honor women everywhere who have worked to succeed in the male-dominated field is to watch movies featuring strong female leads. When making a list of movies to watch, many come to mind. Fortunately, Birds of Prey has just been added to Netflix’s collection of movies. The COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted the Philippine film industry, which in turn affected the release of new films in 2020. Thankfully, Harley Quinn and her group of female friends have returned to share their thrilling and defiant tales.
Margot Robbie portrayed Harley Quinn in the film. The remaining cast members are Rosie Perez as Renee Montoya, Ella Jay Basco as Cassandra, Jurnee Smollett as Black Canary, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress. Due to the pandemic, the movie didn’t do well when it originally debuted on January 25, 2020, but since it was released on Netflix, it has gained popularity and recognition.
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