Sonic The Hedgehog Out Grosses Margot Robbie’s Birds Of Prey In Just 4 Days – Here’s Why
Sonic The Hedgehog destroyed its competition at the box office including Margot Robbie’s Birds of Prey.
The video-game adaptation out grossed Birds of Prey in just four days.
According to The-Numbers, Sonic the Hedgehog brought in a little over $70 million in the first four days it was in theaters.
In contrast, Birds of Prey only earned $35.1 million in its first four days. The film still hasn’t reached the $70 million mark. As of February 18th, Birds of Prey has only grossed $63.5 million domestically.
The difference at the box office is glaring, especially in how the two movies treated their fans in the lead up to release.
Sonic the Hedgehog
After Sonic the Hedgehog was roasted following the release of its first trailer, director Jeff Fowler announced they would be redesigning Sonic and even delayed the release of the film in order to accommodate the redesign.
Related: Sonic the Hedgehog Creator Yuji Naka Praises Fans for Getting Sonic Redesigned
Sonic the Hedgehog creator Yuji Naka even praised fans for getting Sonic redesigned.
Following the release of the redesign and a new trailer, fans quickly jumped on board the Sonic train, and as the box office shows, rewarded them with listening to their feedback.
The promotion for the film would see it marketed as a fun, and entertaining family film.
However, Jim Carrey would talk about his own personal opinions about President Donald Trump while promoting the film, he did not indicate the film would have any kind of political messaging. In fact, Carrey would actually be lampooned for cracking jokes on the talk shows.
While detractors might have thought this might deter audiences from Sonic the Hedgehog, it seems to have shown that Carrey was back in form and the film would be quite humorous.
Birds of Prey
Birds of Prey faced similar criticism regarding the characters’s designs and aesthetics. However, this criticism was ignored. Back in January, Matthew Kadish criticized the character designs for Birds of Prey stating, “They’ve removed any sex appeal these characters had to appeal to a female “girl power” audience instead of the core male comic book audience.” He added, “They literally don’t know who they’re making this movie for.”
You know why #BirdsOfPrey is going to bomb just like #CharliesAngels did?
They’ve removed any sex appeal these characters had to appeal to a female “girl power” audience instead of the core male comic book audience.
They literally don’t know who they’re making this movie for. pic.twitter.com/ZKp9A301PN
— Matthew Kadish (@MatthewKadish) January 26, 2020
Birds of Prey costume designer Erin Benach would respond to the Tweet in an interview with Business Insider Australia.
Benach ignored the criticism and focused on praising her suit designs,”I think by nature of hiring me it was sort of just implied that what I was going to create was going to be something with great design and iconic looks and an homage to the characters that so many people know and adore and love.”
She added, “I designed for the characters. I designed the way I would design, the way I would love to portray women.”
Benach continued, “I wanted women and men to look at them and think they were beautiful and cool and awesome and sexy and strong.”
Related: Margot Robbie on Harley Quinn’s Birds of Prey Costumes: “Less Male Gaze-Y”
However, as Business Insider Australia notes, Benach’s words might just be that. The production notes for the film reveal Benach said she “wasn’t interested in creating a bunch of purely sexy looks, but designs these women could feel great in.”
Benach wasn’t the only one to ignore criticism of the costumes and character designs. Margot Robbie specifically noted back in June 2019 that the Birds of Prey costumes were supposed to be “less male gaze-y.”
Robbie told Vogue, “Yeah, it’s definitely less male gaze-y.” In the same interview, Benach added, “That’s what happens when you have a female producer, director, writer.”
Not only would the Birds of Prey team ignore feedback from fans regarding their costumes and character designs, but the film actually left out one of the founding members of the team, Barbara Gordon aka Oracle. Margot Robbie even described the character as “integral” to the Birds of Prey team in the lead-up to the film. However, she was left out.
Related: Ewan McGregor Doubles Down On”Misogynist” Marketing for Birds of Prey
The Birds of Prey film also had Ewan McGregor go on every talk show and claim that the movie was a feminist film that would lecture its audience on misogyny.
And while Sonic received praise from its creators, Chuck Dixon criticized Warner Bros. and the film’s production team for excluding Birds of Prey creator Jordan Gorfinkel from the credits. The film couldn’t even honor the creator of the Birds of Prey team.
Needless to say, the marketing, production, and development of both films are night and day, and the box office reflects that.
What do you make of the differences between Birds of Prey and Sonic the Hedgehog? Do you think it affected the box office?
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