'Birds Of Prey' Dethrones 'Bad Boys For Life' To Top The Box Office, But Opens Below Projections

Bad Boys for Life has been dominating the box office since arriving in theaters in the middle of January, but the ladies of Birds of Prey took Will Smith and Martin Lawrence down a peg with some DC Comics action. However, even though the movie starring Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn ended up Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with an 81% critical score, it only ended up with roughly $33.25 million, opening below the projected $45 million that Warner Bros. Pictures was hoping for.

Get more on the Birds of Prey box office performance below.

Birds of Prey landed a "B+" Cinema Score from opening day audiences (via Box Office Mojo), which isn't the best, but it's certainly not bad either. In fact, the younger audiences gave the film an "A-" CinemaScore. Since audiences clearly aren't disappointed with how Birds of Prey turned out, what's the problem here?

There's a chance the R-rating kept a larger audience away. Even though that didn't stop people from seeing Joker, the fact that Birds of Prey ties into the rest of the DC Extended Universe might have also hurt its box office prospects. Beyond that, it's also possible that the marketing for Birds of Prey didn't push hard enough to make audiences more aware of its existence in theaters. The consensus online from many entertainment reporters and analysts is audiences may not have even known it was released this past weekend. That would help explain why the movie had the lowest opening for a DC Comics movie since the box office bomb that was Jonah Hex.

Hopefully the positive word of mouth and awareness from these box office reports will help let people know Birds of Prey is not only in theaters, but that's it's actually good. Otherwise, this could be bad news for the future of The Suicide Squad, which is also supposed to be an R-rated affair.

Dropping into the #2 spot was Bad Boys for Life. After holding strong at #1 for three straight weeks, the movie only dropped 32% from the previous weekend with another $12 million raked in. It takes the movie over $166 million, and combined with the international box office, the movie has earned over $336 million.

With the boost of awards season and the Best Picture frontrunner status heading into Oscars weekend, 1917 stuck around in the #3 spot with another $9 million. That's only a 5% drop from the previous weekend. If the movie would have one Best Picture, it probably would see an increase this coming week, but earning $132.5 million domestically after only being in theaters for a month is pretty damn good for a prestige war drama.

Somehow, Dolittle is still hanging on in the top five at the #4 spot. It earned an estimated $6.66 million, which seems appropriate with how poorly received the movie was by critics and audiences. The movie has still earned nearly $64 million in the United States, and has reached nearly $95 million internationally, and it still has to open in Brazil, Russia, Japan and China. We just wish people would just give up on it so we don't have to worry about it anymore.

Finally, holding strong in the top five is Jumanji: The Next Level in the last spot. In its ninth week of release, it only dropped 8%, and with $298 million racked up no, it's on the verge of pushing past $300 million in the US this week. Combine that with the international numbers hitting $470 million, and the global box office take for the sequel stands at $768 million.

Outside of the top five, we just wanted to note that Saturday saw both Knives Out and Little Women surpass Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which is impressive for an original movie and an adaptation of a novel that has been around for about 150 years. Knives Out has now earned $158.9 million in the US, and Little Women stands at over $102 million domestically.

It'll be interesting to see what happens with Birds of Prey next weekend when Sonic the Hedgehog and Fantasy Island hit theaters to shake up the genre side of things. Fantasy Island could take away from the R-rated crowd, but Sonic the Hedgehog shouldn't have too much of an impact on the audience for the DC Comics movie. Stay tuned to see what happens.