Sonic vs. Birds of Prey

Overview

Sonic vs. Birds of Prey refers to a supposed culture war between Sonic the Hedgehog fans and Birds of Prey fans wherein the latter allegedly launched a campaign to try and hinder the former's box office performance and journalists were allegedly disappointed that Sonic proved more popular on its opening weekend than Birds of Prey. While there is scant evidence to back either claim the supposed war led to a series of reaction videos with people criticizing Birds of Prey fans for being angry and pointing to Sonic's success as evidence female-led superhero and comic book films don't perform well.

Background

Birds of Prey, a film about Harley Quinn and an all-female superhero team in the DC Comics universe, released February 7th, 2020, with Sonic the Hedgehog releasing a week later on February 14th. On its opening weekend, Birds of Prey underperformed at the box office in comparison to what it was projected to make, gaining only $33 million against a projected $50-55 million.^[1]

On February 10th, 2020, Twitter user @LSMark_^[2] pointed to several tweets that attempt to say harassment was taking place at screenings for Sonic the Hedgehog and the film contained homophobic slurs, and that viewers had a better experience at Birds of Prey (tweets shown below). Several of the tweets contain the same text, suggesting they were part of an orchestrated campaign to disparage Sonic. This was covered by wegotthiscovered.^[3]

Developments

The tweets led some to extrapolate that Birds of Prey fans were "toxic SJWs", as blog Cosmic Book^[4] wrote. Other sites including VG247^[5] and TSSZnews^[6] covered that tweet as evidence that Birds of Prey fans were attempting to sabotage Sonic the Hedgehog. The supposed rivalry between the two films also led some to believe that critics were giving middling reviews to Sonic in an attempt to elevate Birds of Prey. YouTuber The Quartering made this point in a video that gained over 124,000 views (shown below, left). YouTuber Dumbsville made a long video laughing at the tweets, gaining over 100,000 views (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References