'Bros' Really Wants You To Know That It's Groundbreaking
And yet somehow the gay romcom flopped anyway. Let's discuss.
When a gay romcom flops, there’s really no one to blame but straight people.
That’s Billy Eichner’s explanation anyway, after Bros, a film he co-wrote and stars in, flopped at the box office on opening weekend, bringing in just $4.8 million, 40% less than expected. “Straight people, especially in certain parts of the country, just didn’t show up,” he wrote in a tweet about the disappointment.
Indeed, straight people not showing up would seem to be the only logical explanation. After all, Bros has everything else going for it: a great cast, an all-star production team in Judd Apatow and Nicholas Stoller (who also co-wrote), studio support, and great reviews all-around.
Plus, Bros is groundbreaking. It’s the first gay romcom by a major studio.
Did you know that? Did you know it’s the first gay romcom by a major studio? Did you know that it’s groundbreaking?
I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s actually the only thing you knew about Bros. After all, Universal Pictures spent an estimated $30 million to $40 million to promote it, compared to a production budget of just $22 million. Eichner himself spent months promoting the film on every form of media he could. And all of those promotions went out of their way to make it very clear that Bros is groundbreaking.
To be sure, on an industry and society-wide level, Bros genuinely is groundbreaking. But there are issues with making that the entire identity of the movie’s marketing campaign.
First and foremost, it’s unnecessary. Everyone who was ever going to be interested in seeing Bros already knows that it’s groundbreaking. And everyone who doesn’t already know that likely isn’t interested in seeing it anyway.
More importantly, just being groundbreaking isn’t very motivating in and of itself. When a work of art is compelling for its storyline and creative choices, the fact that it is groundbreaking can be a great additional driver to get audiences to buy tickets early. But in Bros’ case, without focusing the movie’s advertising on any other motivating factors, the groundbreaking-ness of the film started to feel more like a gimmick than a genuine sign of societal change.
That being said, after seeing Bros earlier this week, I can understand why the marketing campaign focused so aggressively on the groundbreaking-ness of this movie. Frankly, the movie itself doesn’t have much of an identity beyond being the first gay romcom by a major studio.
The central conflict of Bros is technically about a bro-y guy who falls for a more obviously out man who is deeply involved in the LGBTQ community and fighting for gay rights. Those themes play second fiddle to the meta-narrative, though, in which the film constantly reminds the viewer how important its very existence is.
In an extremely meta opening scene, a movie studio exec asks Bobby (Eichner’s character) to write a gay romcom to show the world that love is love. Bobby responds that he’s not interested in making a gay romcom for straight audiences because, and I’m very much paraphrasing here, “Love is not love. That’s just something we told straight people so you’d let us get married.”
That mantra is repeated throughout the movie, but the idea that a gay romcom might look different from a straight one is never really explored. In fact, the central love story of Bros is overtly referential to peak (obviously straight) romcom eras, pulling details, aesthetics, and styles of humor from the best in the genre. There’s nothing inherently wrong with doing so, but it makes the film’s main identity clear: Bros is foremost interested in being the first gay romcom from a major studio. Any identity beyond that is an embellishment at best.
The ironic part about that identity is that Bros technically isn’t the first gay romcom from a major studio. That title, with a few asterisks, goes to Love, Simon, released in 2018, and which had a debut weekend that made $11.8 million. There are clear differences between the movies of course. Love, Simon’s demographic skewed toward teens, while Bros is clearly an adult comedy. There’s the difference in post-pandemic box office numbers. But there are also clear marketing differences. Love, Simon drew audiences in primarily by marketing its feel-good coming-of-age story. The fact that it was groundbreaking was clear enough without the ads directly saying so.
To be completely clear, Bros is not a bad movie. I actually thoroughly enjoyed it. There are some extremely funny scenes and one-liners, and I found myself genuinely smiling when the two love interests (spoiler alert?) finally get together.
But I also found myself far more captivated by an underserved central conflict than I was by the fact that I was watching the first* gay romcom from a major studio, and as a result I’m of the mind Bros would be better off stylistically and financially if it focused on telling a good story that happens to be groundbreaking rather than a capital-g Groundbreaking story.
Call me crazy, but I think even straight people will show up for that.
That’s all for this edition of Cansler Culture.
Shoutout to Mike Seay who responded to my initial tweet about Bros, which then spurred me to write this.
Next edition will probably be about Midnights if I’m being 100% real. So get mentally prepared for that.
Gotta say, very proud of Billy for writing AND starring in every gay man's secret dark twisted fantasy, converting a sexy "straight" man. It's a fanfic come to life.
My husband and I liked it for the most part. It played into stereotypes a good bit, and I’m not sure for the better. There was also limited chemistry between the two leads. Still, given the few options for gay leads out there, it was a fun night at the movies for us. I’m hoping it at least breaks even. You are absolutely correct on the marketing budget absurdity - it was fairly low budget from a production standpoint until you tack that onto the “cost.”