The Billy Eichner/Luke Macfarlane same-sex romantic-comedy film Bros made history with its LGBTQ+ cast being in a big-budget moviebut, unfortunately, it fizzled at the box office.
The Paramount horror movie Smile debuted to a sizzling $22 million during the weekend of Sept. 30-Oct. 2, easily topping the domestic box office, Variety noted. The horror film beat Brosthe weekend's other new wide releasewhich landed in fourth place with a $4.8-million bow.
Don't Worry Darling and The Woman King (the latter starring Viola Davis) finished second and third, respectively. Disney's re-release of Avatar rounded out the top five, earning $4.7 million.
Fortunately, Bros didn't represent a major financial risk for Universal, carrying a modest production budget of $22 million. The film earned mostly good reviews, but clearly struggled to connect with audiences. Its opening is about half of the $8 million to $10 million that Universal projected Bros would make.
"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," Eichner tweeted, adding, "That's just the world we live in, unfortunately," according to Page Six.
As the box office enters October, the horror genre will continue to take center stage with Universal's Halloween Ends being released in two weeks, with backers hoping to cash in on the seasonal thirst for thrills and chills.