Box Office: The Invisible Man Soars, Birds of Prey Continues to Fight

The Invisible Man opened wide this past weekend in the US to tremendous reviews. The film currently has a 92% ‘fresh’ on Rotten Tomatoes (with an average rating of 7.6/10) and an 89% audience score. It’s a brilliant film (stay tuned for my full review tomorrow ahead of its wide release here in Malaysia this Thursday) by Leigh Whannell, one that understands that creating tension and suspense through precise camerawork and character writing makes for a far more engrossing horror picture than silly jump scares and loud music.

So, it brings me nothing but joy to report that the film has smashed it at the North American box office in its first weekend of release. The Invisible Man grossed $US 29 million in North America and $US 20.2 million outside of North America for a $US 49.2 million global cume. There are a number of things to keep in mind. 1) The film has a production budget of merely $US 7 million and 2) It hasn’t been released wide outside of North America (in Malaysia for instance, the film received a limited release this past weekend to build hype ahead of its official launch).

I’m certain that horror fans will rush out to see it in the coming weeks. The R-rated horror film will face little to no competition until the release of the highly anticipated A Quiet Place on March 19. Expect The Invisible Man to continue to soar at the box office until then.

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After a disappointing box office debut (there’s really no other way to spin this), Birds of Prey has continued to soldier on. After four weekends in theatres, the Cathy Yan film centred around Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) has raked in $US 78+ million in North America and $US 109+ million outside of North America for a worldwide total of $US 188.3 million.

This isn’t something to pop a champagne for, especially considering the film’s $US 85 million budget (keep in mind that the general rule of thumb is that big-budget Hollywood films need to gross roughly two times more than its production budget before it starts to see real profits, due to marketing costs).

That said, it’s certainly not the massive failure some people have made it out to be. Even taking the aforementioned rule of thumb into consideration, the film has already made a small $US 18 million profit, which once again, isn’t great, but it’s not a flop either.

Birds of Prey is a fun action-heavy comic book film that was likely buried at the box office because of its misleading title — most casual friends have no idea what to make of Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn and have no idea that it’s a Harley Quinn centric film — and poor marketing campaign. After its opening weekend, Warner Bros changed the film’s title online to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey for SEO purposes.

Birds of Prey is currently playing in Malaysian cinemas. The Invisible Man is set for a 5 March release.

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