‘Bros’ Star/Co-Producer Guy Branum Responds To Box Office Results

Comedian Guy Branum, co-star and co-producer of the Universal film Bros, spoke out last night in a series of tweets about Bros’ box office and how it will impact the future of queer film and the actors in the film. There’s been quite a lot of ‘Monday morning’ rumination as to why the film didn’t live up to first weekend box office expectations. As regular readers of TRR know, I saw the film, I liked the film, I laughed out loud. And I wrote a big-ass positive review. Here’s the beginning of the thread. You can see the full thread on Twitter here.

In talking about how cruelly @billyeichner, white, cis, rich, hot- or not-hot-enough-to-be-a-movie-star (depending on who’s tweeting) demanded the queer community support his movie, a thing that is rarely mentioned is the rest of the cast.

— Guy Branum (@guybranum) October 5, 2022

When @nicholasstoller and @JuddApatow gave Billy the chance to write and star in a film, they were working from an established game plan Judd had used to help build the careers of @amyschumer @kumailn @Sethrogen and others. In making films like “Trainwreck” or “The Big Sick”…

— Guy Branum (@guybranum) October 5, 2022

newer comic voices were surrounded by established famous movie stars like Holly Hunter, Marissa Tomei, and Tilda Swinton. But Billy asked for his movie to not surround him with famous movie stars, but with out LGBTQ+ performers.

— Guy Branum (@guybranum) October 5, 2022

Here’s the full text of Branum’s thoughts:

In talking about how cruelly @billyeichner, white, cis, rich, hot- or not-hot-enough-to-be-a-movie-star (depending on who’s tweeting) demanded the queer community support his movie, a thing that is rarely mentioned is the rest of the cast.

When @nicholasstoller and @JuddApatow gave Billy the chance to write and star in a film, they were working from an established game plan Judd had used to help build the careers of @amyschumer @kumailn @Sethrogen and others. In making films like “Trainwreck” or “The Big Sick”…

newer comic voices were surrounded by established famous movie stars like Holly Hunter, Marissa Tomei, and Tilda Swinton. But Billy asked for his movie to not surround him with famous movie stars, but with out LGBTQ+ performers.

Because of discrimination, there aren’t many LGBTQ+ actors with box office draw. In casting the romantic lead of the movie, he could have asked @ChrisEvans, but instead he went with a guy who came out in 2008 and got stuck making Hallmark movies for 20 years, @lukemac_BROS

and yes, Luke is white and masc and cis and hot, but the gay male community has spent so much time fetishizing these things that half of @Queerty’s articles are just lists of torsos. Billy knew he had to draw attention to make $, and Luke is a gifted actor who draws attention.

And for the rest of the cast, Billy and Nick worked so hard to find veterans like @guillermodiazyo, who works constantly, but rarely gets to play gay, or stage actors like Becca Blackwell, who don’t get many movies because LA has no idea what to do with bearded nonbinary d*kes

He found @alienreese who was just doing her Kamala impression online, and pulled her into the mix. He fell in love with @TsMadisonatl1 through her vines and helped continue her burgeoning acting career.

Billy took a risk convincing the straight guys and corporations to cast queer people without extensive resumes or B.O. draw, like me, in this movie. So when you pat yourself on the back for resisting the tokenizing, condescending marketing for the film…

Also acknowledge that @billyeichner held the door open for a lot of other, diverse queer people, and this movie doing poorly at the box office limits the opportunities which will be in our future.

Yes, streaming is a safer place for romantic comedies, and queer stories, but that’s because streaming services get to decide how to allocate their resources for a diverse slate of programming. Getting lots of views is great…

But until we can show Hollywood that stories by us, about us are a way of directly generating money, we will not have the opportunities, or control over our own stories that straight cis people have always enjoyed.

#BrosMovie is still in theaters. Go, not because you’re obliged to, not because @billyeichner was in @GQMagazine, not because if we don’t, the homophobes win. Go because @EveLindley is the funniest fucking person in America.

Guy is currently working as a writer and Co-Executive Producer on the hit Emmy-nominated HBO Max series Hacks and just finished shooting a supporting role on the new Apple TV+ comedy Platonic, starring Seth Rogan and Rose Byrne. I’ll add to the conversation here by saying I’ve noted in several social media threads that I think there are more than one reason as to why to film didn’t do better in its first weekend. As several folks have posted on social media, they plan on seeing the film, they just didn’t make getting out to a movie theater to see a rom-com on its first weekend their priority. But they still plan to see it. Lots of other folks have said they still don’t go to movie theaters after two years of the COVID pandemic. They’ve grown accustomed to watching new releases on streaming platforms. Some have said all they know of Billy Eichner is his ‘Billy on the Street’ persona and that didn’t move them to go buy a ticket. I think, eventually, lots more people will see Bros and enjoy it. It might be this week, it might be in the future on a streaming platform. It’s a shame that studio execs put so much weight on first weekend box office. But, as they say, that’s showbiz.