Bros star and co-producer Guy Branum called out the film’s critics in a social media post.
On 30 September, the highly anticipated romantic comedy finally hit theatres in the US.
Written by Billy Eichner and Nicholas Stoller (Neighbors), with the latter also directing the film, Bros has made history as the first gay rom-com to be produced by a major Hollywood studio.
The film also features an entirely LGBTQ+ principal cast, including Jim Rash, Bowen Yang, Guillermo Díaz, Ts Madison, Miss Lawrence, Harvey Fierstien, Symone and Benito Skinner, among others.
However despite earning rave reviews from most critics, Bros received low box office numbers and criticism from some LGBTQ+ moviegoers over its story and marketing strategy.
On 4 October, Branum took to Twitter to share his two cents on the film’s critiques and box office status in a series of tweets.
“In talking about how cruelly [Billy Eichner], 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,” he wrote.
“When Nicholas Stoller and Judd Apatow 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 Amy Schumer Kumail Nanjiani, Seth Rogan and others.”
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
Branum went on to say that, unlike the aforementioned actors and their respective Apatow-produced films, Eichner wanted to cast openly LGBTQ+ performers with varying experience to help lead the movie.
“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 tokenising, condescending marketing for the film,” he continued.
“Also acknowledge that Billy Eichner 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.”
Branum’s statement came a couple days after Eichner shared his disappointment over the film’s lacklustre opening weekend on Twitter.
“Rolling Stone already has BROS on the list of the best comedies of the 21st century,” he said in a series of now-deleted tweets.
“What’s also true is that at one point, a theatre chain called Universal said they were pulling the trailer because of the gay content. (Uni convinced them not to). America, fuck yeah, etc. etc.
“That’s just the world we live in, unfortunately. 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.”
Bros will be released in the UK on 28 October. You can watch the trailer here or below.
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