‘Smile’ rises to top,‘Bros’ underwhelming, at No. 4
There is no easy way to say it: When the reviews are this sensational, the marketing support is this substantive and the theatrical footprint is this wide — and ticket sales are nonetheless this low — it usually amounts to outright marketplace rejection.
“Bros,” the first gay romantic comedy from a major studio, arrived to an estimated $4.8 million in ticket sales in the United States and Canada, about 40% less than the low end of pre-release analyst expectations. Universal Pictures booked “Bros” onto 3,350 screens and spent an estimated $30 million to $40 million to promote it. “Bros,” starring Luke Macfarlane and Billy Eichner, who also co-wrote the script, cost roughly $22 million to make. It received mostly positive reviews.
Yet it was a distant fourth at the weekend box office.
Universal’s marketing campaign for “Bros” started in May and emphasized its comedic bona fides; producers included Judd Apatow, the force behind hits such as “Trainwreck” and “Bridesmaids,” and Nicholas Stoller, known for “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” Stoller also directed “Bros” and co-wrote the script. In August and September, Universal took “Bros” to film festivals and screened exclusive footage in cities across the United States.
Movies struggle to find a theatrical audience all the time. But the R-rated “Bros” was heavily promoted as historic — a first for mass-market, studio-driven cinema because it focuses on love and sex between two men. It featured an all-LGBTQ principal cast. There is the possibility that studios, in their riskaverse way, will now point to the disappointing results for “Bros” as justification for passing on other theatrical films with LGBTQ relationships in the forefront.
“‘Bros,’ which has little use for straight actors (or tragedy), sets itself up as a meaningful corrective,” writes film critic Justin Chang for The Times.
“Though hardly the only gay romantic comedy of note to emerge in recent months (like Hulu’s ‘Fire Island,’ whose Bowen Yang pops up here as a lofty Provincetown millionaire), it does boast the notable big-studio precedent of an entirely LGBTQ principal cast, albeit one whose racial and sexual diversity happens to prop up a love story between two white, gay men — something the movie acknowledges with both a wink and a wince.”
“Smile,” a new horror movie from Paramount Pictures that cost an estimated $17 million to make, was No. 1 at North American theaters, with ticket sales between Thursday night and Sunday of about $22 million. “Smile” received strong reviews.
Written and directed by Parker Finn, “Smile” stars Sosie Bacon (daughter of Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick) as a therapist who catches a sinister, fatal curse from one of her patients. The cast of “Smile” also includes Jessie T. Usher, Kyle Gallner, Caitlin Stasey, Rob Morgan and Kal Penn.
“Writer-director Parker Finn’s feature debut, ‘Smile,’ boasts the thinnest of premises based on a laundry list of horror movie trends and tropes, from the historical to the contemporary,” writes film critic Katie Walsh for the Los Angeles Times.
“But Finn fleshes it out with some dizzying cinematography by Charlie Sarroff, a creepily effective score by Cristobal Tapia de Veer and a believably twitchy lead performance from Sosie Bacon. Oh, and jump scares, a whole lotta jump scares.”
In its second weekend, “Don’t Worry Darling” (Warner Bros.) was second, collecting roughly $7.3 million, for a total of $32.8 million. “The Woman King” (Columbia) was third, selling about $7 million in tickets, for a cumulative $46.7 million.
It’s also worth noting that Columbia Pictures’ “Bullet Train” officially crossed the $100 million mark during its ninth weekend in North American theaters; while Sarigama Cinemas’ historical epic “Ponniyin Selvan: Part One” opened in sixth place with $4.1 million across 500 locations — clinching the biggest per-screen average of the top 10.
Opening in wide release this weekend are Disney’s star-packed ensemble dramedy “Amsterdam” and Columbia Pictures’ family friendly “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile.”