Nolte: Why ‘Bad Boys for Life’ Trounced ‘Birds of Prey’ at the Box Office

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Warner Bros, Columbia Pictures

Despite the entertainment media’s pathetic gaslighting, after three weeks in release, it is now official: Birds of Prey is yet another woketard box office catastrophe.

Within what is known as the DC Extended Universe, Birds of Prey’s box office currently sits in last place by a wide mile — both domestically and worldwide.

At the domestic box office, the Suicide Squad sequel might manage to squeak to $85 million, which is about 60 percent of what the previous DC last-placer made: Shazam’s $140 million.

Worse still, and again at the domestic box office, Birds of Prey has made about a quarter of Suicide Squad’s $325 million.

Worldwide, the Harley Quinn standalone is stalling out at $180 million, which again is about half of the previous last-placer, Shazam’s $356 million, and around a quarter of Suicide Squad’s $746 million.

The only good news for Warner Bros. is that Birds of Prey’s production budget was about $90 million (Shazam! cost $100 million, Suicide Squad $175 million). But you have to probably double that $90 million when you include all the promotional costs. Let’s say $200 million all-in. Using the accepted formula that the box office has to nearly double that $200 million for the studio to break even, Warners is looking at huge losses.

On top of Birds of Prey not being a very good movie, it was crazy for Warners to turn it into a woketard tour of misandry and man-hating, not to mention an R-rated movie that played like PG-13, and to all but eliminate star Margot Robbie’s sex appeal —  which was the best part of Suicide Squad.

What should really wake the studios up is the success of Bad Boys for Life, which, in its seventh(!) weekend of release, earned more money than Birds of Prey, which is in only its fourth — $4.1 million compared to $3.9 million.

Good grief, Bad Boys for Life is the third chapter in a 25-year-old franchise arriving 17 years after the second chapter, and it features two aging stars in their fifties.

Birds of Prey stars Robbie, one of the hottest (or so we’re told) stars around today, and it’s a comic-book movie released into a movie world where everything comic-book sets the box office on fire. It’s not only part of the DC Universe, it’s part of the freakin’ Batman universe.

But of course, the Bad Boys are kicking Harley Quinn’s skinny ass ($197 to $80 million domestic). Sorry, but those Bad Boys are more fun and, at times, the movie actually dares to be sexy and politically incorrect. Never in a million years did I expect Bad Boys for Life to do this well. It’s an okay movie. But I think audiences are desperate for some lecture-free entertainment, some old-school action and sex appeal (male and female), and Bad Boys 3 is the first to dare to deliver that in a while.

Birds of Prey is a sexless, preachy, and sometimes shrill slog. Bad Boys for Life is far from perfect, but at least it’s fun and funny and eager to entertain everyone — not just dried-up harpies whose only life partner choices come down to a Pajama Beta-Boy or Ben & Jerry’s. 

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.

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