Birds of Prey took flight last night in Thursday night previews and the latest DC effort is off to a solid start.
Birds of Prey grossed $4 million in Thursday night previews that began at 6:00 PM. The film expands to 4,236 locations today. While the number is a tad lower than other R-rated comic book adaptations such as Joker ($13.3 million), Deadpool ($12.7 million) and Logan ($9.5 million), the demo for this film is much different in terms of the rush and see factor. Birds of Prey is targeting the under 25 female demo and they’re known to spread the wealth over the whole weekend and travel in packs at the last minute to catch a film. The big picture for Birds of Prey is the whole weekend and not just preview night.
What’s encouraging here is that those who came out for preview night loved the film. Exit polling has the film registering 86% with the under 25 female crowds, followed by females over 25 at 85%. Those 13-17-year-olds who were able to buy a ticket really loved it at 94% but they only made up 7% of the audience. Last night the mix on Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak was 40% guys over 25, 26% females over 25, 18% males under 25, and 17% females under 25.
Comparing Birds of Prey’s preview number to other DC titles has it just under Shazam‘s $5.9 million Thursday but that film was rated PG-13 and had early shows that began at 4:00 PM. It’s also right around Warner Bros.’ R-rated 2009 feature adaptation of DC’s Watchmen ($4.5 million), which was back when previews started at midnight. Warner Bros. is using some of these films as a comparison to how Birds of Prey launched last night and they include Lucy ($3 million Thursday night, $43.9 million opening and R-rated), Ready Player One ($3.8 million, $41.7 million opening, $53.7 million 4-day, PG-13) and Ocean’s Eight ($4 million previews, $41.6 million opening, PG-13).
Birds of Prey is tracking for an opening of $50-55 million while I predicted $55-60 million. We’ll have to wait and see how the rest of the weekend plays out but with a $97 million budget and next weekend being the lucrative Valentine’s Day holiday (which falls on Friday this year), I’d say the film is already in good shape, especially once overseas grosses trickle in.
