Los Angeles, Feb 10 (AFP/APP): For Warner Bros.’ new release “Birds of Prey,” the weekend brought good and bad news: It took in an estimated $33.3 million to lead the North American box office, but fared poorly for a superhero movie. The three-day estimate, from industry watcher Exhibitor Relations, marked one of the lowest domestic launches in years for a studio superhero film, according to Hollywood Reporter. The film, starring Margot Robbie as former Joker girlfriend Harley Quinn, has drawn generally strong reviews. Young Chinese-American director Cathy Yan won a special Sundance award for her debut film, dark comedy “Dead Pigs.” Sony’s action comedy “Bad Boys for Life,” with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as wise-cracking detectives, slipped just one notch after topping the box office for three straight weeks, taking in $12 million. Those two movies might have suffered a bit because this is Academy Award weekend, and viewers showed renewed interest in movies vying for the best-film Oscar on Sunday, starting with favorite “1917.” The wrenching and technically impressive war film from director Sam Mendes earned $9 million for the weekend, down only slightly from the week before. In fourth was another Universal picture, “Dolittle,” based on the … Continue reading ‘Birds of Prey’ tops N.America box office but doesn’t quite soar