Warners Bros. changes Birds of Prey title after disappointing opening weekend

After a disappointing opening weekend at the box office, Warner Bros. has quietly opted to change the name of the latest entry in the DC Cinematic Universe, Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). Admittedly, that’s a pretty long title, and the thinking is that it’s not a good idea to put Harley’s Quinn’s name at the very end, since she’s the character with the most name recognition. To that end, the title now shows up as Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey on the AMC app as well as sites for other movie theater chains like Regal Cinemas.

Following the adventures of Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) after her breakup with the Joker, Birds of Prey introduces a whole mess of new characters, including Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), and Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), all of them teaming up to save Gotham City from the villainous Black Mask (Ewan McGregor). Birds of Prey is a spinoff/sequel/revamp of 2016’s Suicide Squad, which was critically panned but did alright at the box office. It’s early days, but Birds of Prey may have the opposite problem: the reviews are solid, but it took in only $33 million on its opening weekend. That’s a lot of money, but it falls short of the $45 million projections, hence the quick rebrand.

Considering Harley Quinn is one of DC’s most popular characters, it does seem odd not to place her front and center in the film’s title. Still, there’s little chance won’t go on to make a profit for Warner Bros.; at around $82 million, the production budget is much smaller than your average tentpole superhero film being made these days, and it’s already crossed that threshold at the international box office.

But the smaller-than-expected returns are concerning, especially in an environment where there are new major tentpole movies coming our all the time. I mean, that Sonic the Hedgehog movie comes out this weekend. You expect Harley Quinn to compete with that?

Anyway, hopefully this won’t scuttle plans for a sequel or anything. There’s still time.

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h/t ScreenRant, The A.V. Club