Billy Eichner responds to “disappointing” opening weekend for BROS plus reactions from people who went to see it

I got BROS in different area codes

 

Long-awaited gay rom-com BROS finally landed last week, and its reception was a mixed bag of highs and lows.

 

Billy Eichner wrote and stars in the movie, making the comedian and four-time Emmy nominated actor the first openly gay man to ever write and star in his own major studio film.

 

Not only that, BROS also makes history as the first major studio film to have an entirely LGBTQ+ principal cast, including Luke Macfarlane, Amanda Bearse, Harvey Fierstein, Bowen Yang, Ts Madison, Symone, Miss Lawrence, Guillermo Diaz, and Guy Branum.

Even the straight parts are portrayed by LGBTQ+ actors. 

 

And yet, for some, the movie didn’t quite land as well as we had all hoped.

 

Many found the marketing angle of ‘first ever’ a touch off, given (the brilliant) Fire Island had been released just months earlier.

For some, the lack of acknowledgment for Joel Kim Booster’s Pride and Prejudice-inspired queer rom-com, made by an indie studio, cemented a lack of enthusiasm for BROS from the offset.

 

“i’m disappointed by the continual lack of acknowledgment of the accomplishments of Asian and other BIPOC communities Fire Island deserves better“, said one Twitter user. 

Fire Island. Web capture:
ihatejoelkim INSTAGRAM

BROS. which had a $22 million production budget, came in 4th overall on opening weekend, taking $4.8 million at the box office.

 

So not the worst result, but not what we all hoped. Especially given the reviews for BROS have mostly been super enthusiastic – an excellent 97% score on Rotten Tomato’s and Roling Stone hailed it one of the best comedies of the 21st century.

EVEN QUEEN MARIAH CAREY was telling folk to go see BROS (tweet below).

 

Eichner took to Twitter to address a lot of talk online, saying:

“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.”

 

 

Gay Twitter was, and continues to be, somewhat divided. Although it’s perhaps worth noting that many of the negative comments appear to be from folk who haven’t seen the movie. 

 

Here are some comments – good and bad – from folk online:

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