Billy Eichner’s Gay Rom-Com ‘Bros’ Takes on Creepy Thriller ‘Smile’ at Box Office
Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter After years of declarations about the death of the romantic comedy, Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum’s recent commercial hit “The Lost City” proved there’s still a place on the big screen for meet-cute stories.
Now, comedian and actor Billy Eichner is taking a stab at the feel-good genre with “Bros,” an R-rated romantic comedy that opens in 3,300 North American theaters on Friday.
The movie, from Universal Pictures, is aiming to generate $8 million to $10 million in its opening weekend. It’s not a huge number, but the film carries a modest $22 million production budget. “Bros” is debuting in theaters alongside Paramount’s R-rated chiller “Smile,” which is projected to cast a toothy glow over the domestic box office charts with $16 million to $20 million.
That’s a stellar result given that it only cost the studio $17 million to make. Though “Bros” is backed by superb reviews (it has a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes) and was made by such stalwarts of the genre as producer Judd Apatow (“The 40 Year Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up”) and director Nicholas Stoller (“Forgetting Sarah Marshall”), the movie has been forced to withstand obstacles beyond Netflix’s near dominance over the rom-com market.
