Birds of Prey Earns $4 Million on Preview Night

The latest movie in the DC Extended Universe is finally in theaters! Birds of Prey sees the return of Suicide Squad's Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, but this time she's teaming up with a group of badass ladies to go up against Ewan McGregor's Black Mask. The movie had its first night of showtimes on Thursday and managed to rake in $4 million. According to Variety, the movie is on track to earn $50 million to $55 million this weekend as it's opening on 4,236 screens, which will top Warner Bros. projected opening of $45 million. Considering the movie cost about $80 million to make, it's on track to be another success for the company, who recently hit it big when Joker reached $1 billion at the box office.

"Margot Robbie's 'Birds of Prey' flew to $4 million on Thursday night," Variety writes. "The figure matches the preview grosses for 'Ocean's Eight' and is comparable to the preview earnings for 'Ready Player One' with $3.8 million."

Birds of Prey will follow an unconventional partnership between Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), and Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), after they begin to be targeted by Gotham City's mob. The film will also star Ewan McGregor as Black Mask and Chris Messina as Victor Zsasz.

"It's more of an origin story for the Birds of Prey and how this version of the group might come together," Robbie, who also produces the film, explained during a visit to the film's set. "In the future, it could be built out into the more traditional groupings, perhaps, or different versions, because people come in and out of the Birds of Prey... Harley is the narrator of the story. A very unreliable, erratic narrator, which is fun, but it also gives, I think, the audience an opportunity to kind of be inside her brain sometimes and see the world through her eyes at times. I guess you'll wait and see how well she does or does not get along with the Birds of Prey in the end. But ultimately, I think she is a not a traditional member of the Birds of Prey."

"It's an eclectic group, which I love, that everyone kind of has a distinct and different personality," Robbie added. "And coming from a different angle, I suppose, you've got Renee, whose set of morals... Her moral compass points a very different way to Harley's and Canary's. And everyone's kind of got their own rule of ethics that they abide by, and they kind of conflict with each other, which I think is always interesting in an ensemble."

Upcoming DC movies include Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) on February 7th, Wonder Woman 1984 on June 5th, The Batman on June 25, 2021, The Suicide Squad on August 6, 2021, Black Adam on December 22, 2021, Shazam! 2 on April 1, 2022, The Flash on July 1, 2022, and Aquaman 2 on December 16, 2022.