Amidst the doom and gloom scenario playing out across theaters chains around the world, Birds of Prey managed to achieve a modest accomplishment by finally crossing $200 million at the box office. The movie scored the record thanks to finally being able to open in Japanese theaters, where it has earned $2.09 million at the box office in that country.

Hardly an inspiring box office figure, but considering the small budget on which the movie was made, it should be enough for it to recover its money when coupled with the film's early VOD release. With Japan so far seeing relatively fewer cases of Coronavirus, the Japanese audiences are still going to picture halls, and Birds of Prey has managed to cash in on that opportunity.

The journey of the film ever since its release has been a rocky one. After the box office success of Suicide Squad, the character of Harley Quinn as played by Margot Robbie was considered the breakout star of the film. Soon after, Robbie made a deal with Warner Bros. to produce a standalone Harley Quinn feature, which evolved into the Birds Of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) project under director Cathy Yan that was finally released in theaters.

The movie was critically acclaimed upon its debut, with reviewers praising its dazzling fight choreography, the camaraderie between the main characters, and a funky pop aesthetic to the feature's sound and design. But despite the good ratings, the film failed to draw a big audience to the theaters.

Many reasons were put forth for this lack of enthusiasm on the part of the audiences. The marketing for the film was considered lackluster, leaving many viewers unaware that the movie was in theaters and had received stellar reviews. An R-rating for Birds of Prey also hindered it from reaching out to its full potential audience.

There was also a section of commenters who believed that the movie had an anti-male message which turned off male audiences. Supporters of the movie hotly contested this claim, but it led to the film garnering an online reputation for being misandrist, which definitely did not do it any favors at the box office.

Warner Bros. seemed to believe the reason the movie did not gel with the crowds was because the characters belonging to the superhero group Birds of Prey were unknown to the audiences. So they decided to change the title of the feature to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey to draw more attention to the one character in the movie who is already a fan favorite.

Before it could be determined if this change would affect any meaningful improvement in box-office earnings, the Coronavirus storm overwhelmed theaters, and the movie finally crumbled completely. A few days ago, it was announced that Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey would soon be available for rent online from March 24. In the past, other films that received good reviews but flopped at the box office found a second life on home streaming. Perhaps a similarly happy fate awaits the unconventional Birds of Prey. This news comes from Forbes.