Summary
- Despite underperforming at the box office, Birds of Prey is a solid superhero movie with memorable characters and vibrant fight scenes.
- It can be enjoyed as a standalone story without prior knowledge of the DCEU.
- With its recent release on Netflix, now is the perfect time to watch Birds of Prey.
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 don’t quite get the appreciation they deserve.
Despite positive reviews, Birds of Prey seems to get a bit lost in the shuffle when discussing DC’s best movies. Whether it’s because of the movie’s lower stakes or Covid lockdowns stifling pop-culture discussion a month after its release, there’s never been a better time to hop into this wonderful entry in Harley Quinn’s DCEU tenure. Moreover, as a self-contained story, it can be viewed without any knowledge of the rest of the DCEU.
Related Birds of Prey Cast Guide: All DC Characters Explained Who’s in Birds of Prey, and where have you seen the performers before? Here’s a complete cast and character guide for the DCEU’s first R-rated film.
Birds Of Prey Is Great But Underperformed
Despite starring one of the DCEU’s most well-received actor/character combos in Margot Robbie’s delightful Harley Quinn, Birds of Prey ranks low on the list of DCEU box-office performances. According to box office data website Box Office Mojo, Birds of Prey only pulled in about $84 million domestically as part of a $205 million worldwide run. While certainly not the worst DC movie performance, those numbers put it at number 10 of 14 DCEU movies ranked by box office take. Moreover, two of the movies ranked below it had limited releases due to Covid theater shutdowns. 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 |
Clearly, Birds of Prey‘s middling box office performance wasn’t enough to slow down Robbie’s momentum as Harley Quinn, who would go on to co-lead the cast of James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. However, the rest of the Sirens weren’t so lucky. Despite talks of a Gotham City Sirens movie, nothing ever materialized. As the DCEU officially comes to an end with Aquaman and the Lost Kindom, it seems that this version of characters like Black Canary, Huntress, and Cassandra Cain will stay limited to one feature film.
Why Birds Of Prey Is Still Worth Watching 3 Years Later
For those who never checked out Birds of Prey, or for anyone who just hasn’t watched it in a few years, there’s never been a better time to hit play than the present. First and most importantly, Birds of Prey is simply a solid superhero movie that delivers memorable characters, vibrant sets and fight scenes, and a perfectly hammy villain in Ewan McGregor’s Black Mask. Though it picks up loosely from threads established in Suicide Squad, the movie also functions completely as a stand-alone story that doesn’t require prior knowledge. Given that Birds of Prey hit Netflix on December 1, it’s also easier to access than ever.