The film stars Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn alongside Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Rosie Perez, Chris Messina, Ella Jay Basco, Ali Wong, and Ewan McGregor.

It follows Harley Quinn, who, after breaking up with the Joker, is threatened by Gotham City crime lord Roman Sionis and joins forces with Helena Bertinelli, Dinah Lance, and Renee Montoya (who form the Birds of Prey) to save Cassandra Cain.

The film had its world premiere in Mexico City on January 25, 2020, and was released in the United States in IMAX, Dolby Cinema, ScreenX and 4DX on February 7, 2020.

She is taken in by Doc, the owner of a Taiwanese restaurant, and recovers from her relationship by cutting her hair, adopting a spotted hyena, and taking up roller derby.

The next night, Harley gets drunk again, and overhearing some of her drinking buddies debating over whether she has actually broken up with the Joker, blows up the Ace Chemicals plant to publicly announce their breakup.

Roman sends Dinah and his sadistic right-hand-man Victor Zsasz to retrieve a diamond embedded with the account numbers to the fortune of the Bertinelli crime family, who were massacred years ago.

Using the money from the accounts hidden inside the diamond, Helena joins with Dinah and Montoya in establishing a team of vigilantes called the Birds of Prey.

[34] A still photograph of Jai Courtney as George "Digger" Harkness / Captain Boomerang also appears on a wall in the Gotham City Police Department.

[35] In May 2016, ahead of the release of Suicide Squad, Warner Bros. Pictures announced a spin-off film focusing on Harley Quinn and several other female DC Comics heroes and villains, such as Batgirl and the Birds of Prey.

[38] Robbie spent three years working on Birds of Prey and continued to present it to Warner Bros. until the studio felt the project was at the point it could be made.

[42] Barbara Gordon / Batgirl, a founding member of the team in the comics, was removed from Birds of Prey due to her planned standalone film, which Christina Hodson also wrote.

[47] The line-up for the Birds of Prey team was revealed to include Black Canary, Huntress, Cassandra Cain, and Renee Montoya, with the villain set to be a Batman adversary who had not yet been seen in the films.

[51] Janelle Monáe, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Jurnee Smollett-Bell were under consideration for Black Canary by September, while Sofia Boutella, Margaret Qualley, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Cristin Milioti were being considered to play Huntress.

[52] Justina Machado and Roberta Colindrez tested for Renee Montoya, while Warner Bros. began seeking a 12-year-old Asian actress to play Cassandra Cain.

[25] Steven Williams, Derek Wilson, Dana Lee, François Chau, Matthew Willig, Robert Catrini, and Ali Wong were also cast.

[68] Jay Cassidy and Evan Schiff served as editors, while Method Studios, Weta Digital, Luma Pictures, Image Engine, and Crafty Apes provided the visual effects for the film.

[91] The first teaser debuted exclusively in theatres on September 5, 2019, in front of screenings for It: Chapter Two; it begins with a shot of a red balloon, deceiving viewers into thinking said film had started, before Quinn walks into the scene and declares that she is "so fucking over clowns" after popping the balloon by smashing it with her mallet, in a collective reference to It / Pennywise the Dancing Clown and the Joker.

[93] On December 5, 2019, Birds of Prey held a panel at the annual CCXP in Brazil, showing the first five minutes of the film, and the second official trailer, which was released online on January 9, 2020.

[94] Warner Bros. Pictures theatrically released Birds of Prey in the United States on February 7, 2020, in standard, IMAX, Dolby Cinema, 4DX, and ScreenX formats.

The low start was blamed on the possible lack of demand for a solo film surrounding the character of Harley Quinn, as well as the confusing title and the R rating limiting the appeal and demographics for ticket sales.

[114] Yan acknowledged the film's unsatisfactory box office performance and reflected, "There were also [undue] expectations on a female-led movie, and what I was most disappointed in was this idea that perhaps it proved that we weren't ready for this yet.

The website's critics consensus reads, "With a fresh perspective, some new friends, and loads of fast-paced action, Birds of Prey captures the colorfully anarchic spirit of Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn.

[110][111] Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars and said that "Robbie turns in a much richer and funnier and layered performance as Harley this time around, thanks in large part to the stiletto-sharp screenplay by Christina Hodson.

"[121] Joe Morgenstern, writing for The Wall Street Journal, stated, "Much of this R-rated movie is chaotic, yet it's a richly hued, madly inventive, gleefully violent and happily slapdash contraption with a formidable female at its center.

"[122] Matthew Monagle of The Austin Chronicle gave it 4 out of 5 stars and said that "Yan and Robbie lean into both sides of Quinn's personality throughout the film.

"[123] A. O. Scott of The New York Times explained that "the mood of antic, playful obnoxiousness feels forced rather than liberated, the result of careful note-taking during repeated viewings of Deadpool.

"[124] The Arizona Republic's Nicole Ludden praised Yan's direction, saying that it "carries a visually distinct style throughout the film that makes the layering of several chaotic scenes feel cohesive.

[126] Writing for Variety, Owen Gleiberman said the film was "thin but lively" and praised the performance of Robbie, as well as Yan's direction, although noted the script as having "attitude to spare, but in a rather bare-bones way.

[128] In a scathing review, Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote:Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn is more than horrible.

[156][157] In February 2021, Robbie discussed working on another project featuring Quinn with The Suicide Squad director James Gunn,[158] and both she and Leslie Grace expressed interest in a crossover between Quinn and Barbara Gordon / Batgirl, whom Grace was originally set to play in the 2022 unreleased film Batgirl and is a prominent Birds of Prey member in the comics.