celeb news Billy blames flop movie on straight people

[GipJo]

I think there are multiple reasons this movie flopped, he did make some points but they're not all the reasons why.

1. Leads with no box office draw. (see Brokeback Mountain).

2. Aggressive gay sexual scenes and gay massages. (see Love, Simon)

3. Overall mid film, with no groundbreaking artistry. (see Moonlight)

4. Social homophobia. (see any other gay films)

5. A genre that is not doing good in this box office market. It's trying to be funny but woke at the same time but failed at both aspects.

This film could do a lot better at streaming, but they chose the wrong release strategy tbh.

[Bey'Knight]

9 hours ago, GraceRandolph said:

Yep, ATRL has a loose definition of "hit" when it comes to this conversation.

Any movie that makes more than 4 times it’s budget is mathematically a hit. It’s nothing to do with atrl. The person you quoted was using numbers without context. Maybe Cus y’all are used to box office returns from marvel juggernauts, you think every movie is expected to perform to those standards. Many movies don’t even start with a wide release in the first place. Might I suggest y’all acquaint yourselves with how movie business works before you start arbitrarily casting off movies as flops?

[Legendary]

white gay men centering themselves as representatives of lgbtq and then thinking they're owed something from everyone else 

[TheWreckoning]

[slik]

 

 

[CaptainMusic]

10 hours ago, teresaguidice said:

brokeback mountain is the only real hit from your list. neither moonlight nor call me by your name were box office successes

Moonlight grossed 65M worldwide, multiplying its budget of 1.5M x 40.

 

It did surprisingly well outside the U.S outgrossing Love Simon and CMBYN and being one of the few black American films not starring Will Smith to gross more outside the U.S. 

 

That is a box office success. A movie doesn’t have to gross 100M to be a success. 

15 hours ago, Communion said:

Opening weekend:

$11.8M - Love, Simon

$547,425 - Brokeback Mountain
$404,874 - Call Me By Your Name
$402,072 - Moonlight

 

?

 

Bros opening weekend will have a larger box office than even the box office total Moonlight got *the week after its Oscar wins*. And I say this as someone unconvinced by the marketing push for Bros.

 

Highlighting very different films that did not succeed largely at the box office kind of emphasizes that there's challenges to how successful gay films can be as box office smashes, even if the marketing for the film itself misjudged how to appeal to its target audience (straight women).

 

 

$11.8M - Love, Simon - 2,402 Theatres

$4.8M - Bros - 3,350 Theatres

$547,425 - Brokeback Mountain - 5 Theatres
$404,874 - Call Me By Your Name - 4 Theatres
$402,072 - Moonlight - 4 Theatres 

When you see how many theatres Bros was released in and compare the results then you can see what a disaster its opening weekend is. It won’t have the longevity of the other films and should’ve grossed like 3-4 times as much as it did. 

It’s said that movies usually have to make around 2.5 times their budget to breakeven so with a budget of $22M Bros needs to make around $55M worldwide which it won’t come close to.
 

On the otherhand:

Breakeven vs Gross

$42M vs $66.3M - Love Simon

$35M vs $178.1M - Brokeback Mountain

$8.75 vs  $41.9M - Call Me By Your Name 

$3.75 vs $65.3M - Moonlight 

Assuming marketing and awards campaigning costs of anywhere from $10-$20M then you can see that BM, CMBYN and Moonlight were all very profitable films while Love Simon did ok and Bros is doing terribly. 

Straight rom coms aren’t even doing well. The reality is that us gays are only a small part of the population, you can’t do a gay film with a $22M budget without a box office draw or the potential for acclaim and an awards push generating word of mouth, and expect it to be successful.

[CaptainMusic]

7 hours ago, mystery said:

In what world were they flops??

Moonlight had a budget of 1.5m and grossed 65m worldwide and won the Best Picture Oscar. 
Call Me By Your Name had a budget of 3.5m and grossed 41.9m worldwide and got numerous Oscar nominations. 
Brokeback Mountain had a budget of 14m and grossed 178m worldwide. 
Love, Simon had a budget of 17m and grossed 66m worldwide. 

In the case of Moonlight and Call Me By Your Name those are absolutely incredible returns based on what was invested. They were not flops in any way. 

 

7 hours ago, mystery said:

You do understand that the Moonlight opening weekend is from its limited release in only 4 theatres that weekend. It had a 100k per theatre average.

It eventually peaked with 2,300,940 on its 20th weekend after release from only 1,564 theatres. Bros is playing in 3,350 theatres and won't get close to that number 20 weeks in, it might not even be playing by that point. 
 

Opening weekend:

$11,8M - Love, Simon - wide release with 2,402 theatres
$4,8m - Bros - wide release with 3,350 theatres

$547,425 - Brokeback Mountain - limited release in 5 theatres, peaked in week 7 with 7,832,000 and 1,196 theatres

$404,874 - Call Me By Your Name - limited release in 4 theatres, peaked in week 9 with 1,437,889 and 815 theatres
$402,072 - Moonlight - limited release in 4 theatres, peaked in week 20 with 2,300,940 from 1,564 theatres

But I guess that doesn't fit your narrative so you won't portray it like it is. Bros received the biggest push and the biggest release out of all of these movies and yet it won't outperform any of them.

 

5 hours ago, mystery said:

Covering your post in vile insults to me doesn't make you right.

Moonlight was a major box office success regardless of its expectations. Yes it was a different type of movie compared to Bros and Love, Simon which received huge wide releases. So why did you even try comparing their opening weekend numbers in the first place? You call me dumb but yet you can't even stick to your beginning argument. 

 

5 hours ago, Communion said:

I'm sorry but this is just honestly incoherent. The post *I originally quoted* already compared them.  Sis, what point are you trying to make? You literally cut off the bottom half of my post where I say Moonlight is by far more successful than Bros, but that its success (as well as the films like CMBYN) is objectively a different type of success than what Bros is aiming for and wants, and that the conversation about why gay stories can only acheice success through stories of intense suffering and trauma is undeniably one worth having, even if i don't agree with the claim by the team behind Bros' that having gay box office rom-com smashes is materially significant for gay people. 

Nowhere in my original post that you quoted did I mention or compare opening weekends as I was well aware that Bros had a wide release compared to the others. I was referring to the overall success and said that clearly people supported those movies far more than they are supporting this mess as it won’t be coming close to their totals despite the much higher budget.

You originally said that CMBYN and Moonlight “did not succeed largely at the box office” which isn’t correct when taking in account the budgets and expectations of these movies. Those 2 movies, especially Moonlight with unknown black actors, were never going to gross say 100M and weren’t expected to as 99% of straight indie/low budget films don’t even come close to Moonlight’s 65M gross. They did “succeed largely” for the kind of films they are. 

 

Bros on the otherhand is simply a box office failure with its wide release and it’s delusional for him and the studio to expect a gay romcom with no stars in it to smash when straight romcoms aren’t even doing well anymore. While it would be great if more gay comedy movies like this could be successful we have to be realistic that gay people are only a small percentage of the population and therefore the appeal is limited without the impact of source material, acclaim and a box office draw. 

[CaptainMusic]

12 minutes ago, InventedGays said:

The weird comparisons to movies like CMBYN & Moonlight kinda proves his point.  A "gay" movie shouldn't NEED to be these big artsy films.  Gay people should be able to see rom-coms, holiday movies, etc. through their POV. Also not surprised to see how many of you self hating gays that have been sitting around excitedly waiting to talk about this flopping 

Yes it shouldn’t be but we live in the real world.

 

Gays aren’t enough to make a film successful and most straight people just can’t connect with a gay movie unless there’s drama in it and it’s marketed as a must see, hopefully that changes in the future but that’s unfortunately how it is now. 

[Melquiades]

16 minutes ago, InventedGays said:

The weird comparisons to movies like CMBYN & Moonlight kinda proves his point.  A "gay" movie shouldn't NEED to be these big artsy films.  Gay people should be able to see rom-coms, holiday movies, etc. through their POV. Also not surprised to see how many of you self hating gays that have been sitting around excitedly waiting to talk about this flopping 

But Bros does not represent the point of view of all gays? It represents the POV of a very niche (and obnoxious) "elite" of gays? 

[Beyonnaise]

40 minutes ago, Melquiades said:

But Bros does not represent the point of view of all gays? It represents the POV of a very niche (and obnoxious) "elite" of gays? 

When did anyone say that Bros represents all gays (or should)? Asking or expecting any movie to do that is going to fail inherently  Big Little Lies was buzzworthy because the cast was all women but it's obviously only going to "represent" wealthy white women living in the richest enclave of California.

Edited October 3, 2022 by Beyonnaise

[Bloo]

44 minutes ago, Melquiades said:

But Bros does not represent the point of view of all gays? It represents the POV of a very niche (and obnoxious) "elite" of gays? 

Literally not a single piece of media can do this for any group of people.  

 

I haven't seen the movie, but from the trailer alone, the scene where the two of them are struggling to text/communicate because knowing who is expected to lead conversation is something that is common in queer relationships because we don't have heteronormative standards to look to. This movie isn't meant to represent everyone in the gay community, but there are nuggets of commonality that many of us can relate to even if it's not an exact match to your own circumstances.

[mathekr]

Aren't rom-coms basically dead? Who would ever expect a r-rated one about white gay men to smash?

[khalyan]

Why would I want to watch anything with Billy Eichner in it?  

[suneclipse121]

I went to go see this one because I have a AMC A List membership.. And it was not it This movie definitely is a white gay experience and it focuses hardcore on stereotypes. I did not relate to anything the movie was portraying at all. The whole grindr/ hookup/ group sex focus was a huge turnoff and the situation that Billy found himself in with his love interest in the movie was not realistic at all. No shade. Also it was not funny and I low key had secondhand embarrassment. I ran out of the theater when the credits began. 

[Theshigo Washidu]

First time hearing of this film tbh.

 

Were they really expecting large swathes of straight people (especially men) to show out for a gay rom-com tho? And especially with that movie cover? 

[Communion]

1 hour ago, CaptainMusic said:

said that CMBYN and Moonlight “did not succeed largely at the box office” which isn’t correct when taking in account the budgets and expectations of these movies.

....this entire conversation is about why and if gay movies have to reserve themselves to these certain expectations that straight movies do not have to *because of homophobia* 

 

Your original post dismisses the claim that Bros as a gay film has to resolve itself to limited expectations due to homophobia, arguing as evidence the success of other gay movies that show gay films can do well, but you then admit these movies are undeniable successes *only if you consider the context they were released in*. 

 

No, going "well people did support those other gay films....in the context of making back 40x their limited budget though 40x their budget is still less than 30% of the total box office of your average straight Hollywood blockbuster" does nothing to actually answer the question at hand and reads like you want to argue over which movies are better despite no one championing Bros as cinematic excellence. 

 

Again, highlighting that most gay film successes are obscure art films whose success is largely defined, not by immense ticket sales or box office totals that eclipse straight movies but by the context of overcoming limited budgets, does more to support, not dispel, the reality that gay filmmaking still faces challenges that straight stories do not, no matter how annoying the lead in this movie is. 

Edited October 3, 2022 by Communion

[Ice Cream Skies]

I'm gay and thought the movie looked like an unfunny, try-hard mess from the trailer alone. Why would I pay to go see this lazy, pandering slop? I'm happy it flopped. If studios are going to make gay movies, they should at least try and make them good.  

[NausAllien]

1 hour ago, InventedGays said:

The weird comparisons to movies like CMBYN & Moonlight kinda proves his point.  A "gay" movie shouldn't NEED to be these big artsy films.  Gay people should be able to see rom-coms, holiday movies, etc. through their POV. Also not surprised to see how many of you self hating gays that have been sitting around excitedly waiting to talk about this flopping 

Exactly! Why can't we have just a basic JLo/Katherine Heigl style rom com with gay protagonist instead of straight protagonists?

 

I hate that there needs to a justification for characters to be gay and they just can't exist the way straight characters do.

 

[Communion]

1 hour ago, CaptainMusic said:

And most straight people just can’t connect with a gay movie unless there’s drama in it and it’s marketed as a must see

The reason why most straight people can't "connect" to aka relate to gay films even when they depict situations they themselves go through is because homophobia informs their understanding of gay people as people. 

 

You yourself admit this but for some reason try to deny such in your original post, arguing homophobia can't be at fault here cause "this film just isn't clicking".

 

You can't compare moderately successful artsy gay films to gay romcoms to deny the existance of homophobia when straight dramas eclipse in success those gay dramas and straight romcoms eclipse the success of gay romcoms. There's no reality where even the most successful gay film is competing with the Top 100 straight films of the year in box office or ticket sales, because straight people by the nature of homophobia's prominence mistakenly feel they can't relate to gay people.

 

Of course it's valid to not care if a gay movie can out-profit huge blockbusters and to say we don't care about making stories straight people can most easily relate to, but it's incredibly silly to try and deny the realities of homophobia on most things gay people will do just cause the actor and writer are annoying as ****. 

[Cloy]

This is a trending topic on Lipstick Alley today and they are gloating about this big time, citing that "woke" makes you go broke and all of that neck beard talk. I wonder if they're gonna feel the same way if The Little Mermaid flops in a few months. According to them, gay representation is forced but black representation isn't even when you race swap. 

Edited October 3, 2022 by Cloy

[WildAmerican]

the way he couldn't even flop with grace/without being annoying 

Edited October 3, 2022 by WildAmerican

[VOSS]

4 hours ago, slik said:

 

 

He’s so obnoxious  don’t care if it’s a “character”

[Mast]

23 hours ago, TanjiroKamado said:

???

 

nothing comes to mind

 

 

Moonlight and Everything Everywhere All At Once immediately come to mind. There are also biopics of queer people that have grossed well. 

 

I'll admit I haven't watched this movie but from the trailer alone I get the impression that it uses a lot of queer move cliche in an ironic way, but falls flat on actually doing anything groundbreaking. It's just a movie about white gay men lmao. 

[Rainbows]

he's really upset straight people aren't going to see a movie made for the lgbt? why would they babes? 

[MadonnasBoyfriend]

1 hour ago, Cloy said:

This is a trending topic on Lipstick Alley today and they are gloating about this big time, citing that "woke" makes you go broke and all of that neck beard talk. I wonder if they're gonna feel the same way if The Little Mermaid flops in a few months. According to them, gay representation is forced but black representation isn't even when you race swap. 

Why didn't you post this there? On a warning? ? Anyways it might look the same here but responses are a bit controlled here or you get in trouble. They care about different things there and vise versa 

Edited October 3, 2022 by MadonnasBoyfriend