Weekend Thread | Actuals: Smile 22.6, DWD 6.85, TWK 6.8, Avatar 5, Bros 4.8

[TMP]

bros was a film that in a genre that’s been underperforming like crazy unless it starred a big name like bullock. the apatow comedy in general feels like a hard sell, let alone with someone who’s fairly unknown to the GA like Eichner.

Fwiw I feel like Knock on the Cabin will prolly be a hit, which will hopefully help representation in a way that bros didn’t seem to.

[CJohn]

6 minutes ago, BestPicturePlutoNash said:

He probably will never get a next time because the flop

The movie was very well received. In the streaming age, that gets you a next time.

[Cap]

1 hour ago, Ipickthiswhiterose said:

Why would an 18 year old lesbian in Leeds who's never heard of Debra Messing see any kinship in the nuances and dynamics of balancing dudebro cache and Queer subcultural capital in middle class New York?

This makes me laugh, cause my Bestie and I (both queer) having been talking about Smash all day. 😂

[yankeesfan2021]

2 hours ago, ringedmortality said:

According to NYTimes Bros had a marketing budget between 30 and 40 million.

 

Also:

 

 

i hadn't seen the trailer for Bros and just watched it now.

 

Wow, Blow jobs and talk about bottoms....sorry, but that's not going to sell to anyone but a really niche gay audience on the coasts.

[BoxOfficeFangrl]

1 hour ago, snarkmachine said:

Eichner’s comments are weird. Gay people didn’t show up for Bros either.

It's just opening weekend, did anyone really expect Eichner to say the movie was too specific to have broad appeal even for LGBT audiences, or that now he realizes he's too annoying and not famous enough to be a romantic comedy lead? Stars are usually defensive in the immediate aftermath of a flop. If they ever get to the "mistakes were made" stage, it usually takes a while.

 

 

Edited October 3, 2022 by BoxOfficeFangrl

[ringedmortality]

I posted the NYTimes article on a different forum I’m on and someone said this:

“In all seriousness, inflammatory takes on Twitter are often just marketing at this point. Those tweets are probably Eichner trying to get headline coverage for his film.”

 

And then they linked a lot of articles covering Eichner’s tweets

[CoolioD1]

1 hour ago, CJohn said:

The movie was very well received. In the streaming age, that gets you a next time.

he'll probably get another tv show but i think we're safe from ever seeing the phrase "a billy eichner movie" again. it's weird his show difficult people seemed  to have some understanding of how unlikeable he comes across on screen, i'd have thought he'd have the self awareness to know he doesn't read as a likeable romcom lead but guess not.

[Legion Again]

Sure, straight people didn’t show up. Seems pretty predictable based on the marketing.   
 

Gay people also did not show up. This, too, seems fairly predictable based on the marketing.    
 

Maybe the movie is awesome, but it really didn’t seem to know how to choose 2 minutes of clips that made it look awesome.

[Flopped]

Yeah the trailer is basically "rim, bottom, Grindr *no straights allowed* top bottom gay sex *straights go away*" 

 

Most successful romcoms, even the R-rated ones, are not all about fucking and how you fuck and what position. 

[AJG]

1 hour ago, CoolioD1 said:

he'll probably get another tv show but i think we're safe from ever seeing the phrase "a billy eichner movie" again. it's weird his show difficult people seemed  to have some understanding of how unlikeable he comes across on screen, i'd have thought he'd have the self awareness to know he doesn't read as a likeable romcom lead but guess not.

 

The fact that they released the segment of Billy on The Street where it looked like he was harassing a woman over the film La La Land should tell you that Self Awareness is out the window.

[AJG]

So that $30m Ad budget story is the truth...

Who Won the Week: Nobody, because…

Nobody knows anything, windowing edition: This weekend featured one movie, Hocus Pocus 2, that went direct-to-Disney+ but probably would have done well in theaters; another movie, Smile, was made for streaming but was redirected to theaters by Paramount’s Brian Robbins and opened to $22 million (on a $17 million budget); a third movie, Bros, should have gone direct-to-streaming but, for some reason, was given a theatrical release by Universal and a $30 million marketing campaign—and flopped massively

[ringedmortality]

Universal was confident that they had a Trainwreck or a Bridesmaids in their hands.

[Porthos]

1 hour ago, ringedmortality said:

Universal was confident that they had a Trainwreck o[]n their hands.

 

Well, when it comes to the box office... 

[Mad hatter]

On 10/1/2022 at 7:44 PM, Krissykins said:

Where is the Brad Pitt troll now? 😂

This made me lol 

 

A gay film doesn’t have to be “palatable” to straight people. Gay men deserve a raunchy sex comedy, that’s what Bros is. It’s not something you have to “put up with”. We have the sexless stuff like Love Simon (which I love), Love Victor and Heartstopper, Bros and Fire Island are offering something a bit different. 
 

I’ve sat through plenty of straight sex comedies, where often the gay characters are stereotypes or just there to be laughed at.

 

This didn't hit 100m after 2 months because of Pitt's star power.  If it wasn't for lack of
competition this would have never got 100m or 230m. And also the movie was full of stars. from Sandra to Bad Bunny.

This movie is a bomb period. Sony spent tons of millions on marketing (bros having 30m for marketing means sony spent 100m on bullet train) and opened in 4k theaters to get 400m not 230m..It didn't even break out with 50% of DOM and 25% of OS?🤔. how is that success? the bar is in hell for men. Everyone called the eternals flop but bullet train is a success? lol

[JustLurking]

I mean, you guys did ask for him, so...

[Krissykins]

Ah, I just assumed they’d been banned. 
 

Bullet Train still isn’t even close to a bomb though. 

[Eric the Ape]

6 minutes ago, Krissykins said:

Ah, I just assumed they’d been banned. 
 

Bullet Train still isn’t even close to a bomb though. 

I mean…they are. They just want to keep coming back for some stupid reason.

[Legion Again]

9 minutes ago, Krissykins said:

Ah, I just assumed they’d been banned. 
 

Bullet Train still isn’t even close to a bomb though. 

They have picked up like 40 bans in about as many days

[filmlover]

Billy's comments about the movie's flopping aren't going to help him (or the movie, for that matter). He was the one who seemed to be most in control of the movie's marketing the whole time and had been hyping it up the most since the beginning, so it's gotta be rough to discover that he's not a household name after all (doesn't help that among people who do know who he is, he's considered "The Guy Who Yells a Lot" and perhaps weren't willing to check out something that devotes two hours to him because of that), but making it an "us vs. them" situation (when hardly anyone, gay or straight, went to see the movie over the weekend) isn't going to accomplish anything. Bros isn't even close the first movie to get solid reviews to flop at the box office and certainly won't be the last either.

[PlatnumRoyce]

While praising Bros' cinemascore, director Nicholas Stoller revealed that the film (1) tested same with straight and gay audiences and (2) tested best with female audiences. - 

Not really all that significant (especially without knowing test scores raw numbers) but  it's a stray data anecdote I haven't seen people mention. 

Edited October 3, 2022 by PlatnumRoyce