Less than a week after Billy Eichner went on a Twitter tear following the revelation that Bros would be a box office flop, director/co-writer Nicholas Stoller and producer Guy Branum are trying to do some damage control on both Eichner and the movie.
After its lackluster opening weekend, Bros co-writer and star Billy Eichner took to Twitter to blast those who didn’t see the movie–particularly straight white males. “That’s just the world we live in, unfortunately…Even with glowing reviews, great Rotten Tomatoes scores, an A CinemaScore, etc., straight people, especially in certain parts of the country, just didn’t show up for Bros. And that’s disappointing but it is what it is.” He got even more harsh by labeling many “homophobic weirdo[s].”
Billy Eichner was also proud Bros was going to theaters, unlike other LGBT-based movies that go to streaming and feel, as he put it, “disposable.”
While Stoller thinks that Eichner “just literally misspoke”, he also agrees that “gay men are the only people who saw the movie.” He, too, expressed confusion as to why it opened with less than $5 million since buzz had been building around strong reviews. With an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s one of the best-reviewed comedies of the year.
Branum thinks the marketing was a significant factor in the poor box office reception. “I pitched ideas for posters that were not used. I pitched ideas for taglines that were not used. I was very vocal about what I thought they needed to be doing for community outreach.” As of publication, Bros has grossed under $7 million on a $22 million budget.
As far as Billy Eichner’s Twitter outburst goes, Stoller summed it up with a point that perhaps should be considered. “It’s also part of our clickbait culture that he just said something that was true, and then everyone got mad at him.”
Why do you think Bros flopped at the box office? Was it poor marketing? Did a certain demographic just refuse to show up? Did the movie just not seem interesting to most? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.