The unnerving Paramount horror film "Smile," which is about smiles, suicide, and murder, has made $2 million domestically from Thursday previews. On the other end of the cinematic spectrum, Universal's love comedy "Bros," which has an exclusively LGBTQ cast, has made $500,000 so far.
This weekend's box office competition between the two films will pit "Smile" against "Bros" and the reigning champion, "Don't Worry Darling," which has made $25.5 million in its first week of release. This weekend, the horror film is anticipated to bring in between $16 million and $20 million. Given that the low-budget horror film only cost $17 million to produce, Paramount will be grinning ear to ear with a box office tally in that area.
"Bros" aims for a $8 million to $10 million box office opening this weekend. That's a passable outcome if estimates are accurate. However, making the movie only cost Universal $22 million, so it wasn't a particularly risky investment. Furthermore, "Bros" will have broken glass ceilings regardless of how well or poorly it performs at the box office. It's the first publicly LGBTQ cast movie, the first homosexual rom-com to receive a theatrical distribution from a major studio, and Billy Eichner is the first openly gay actor to create and star in a Hollywood film. Eichner even resurrected his well-known "Billy on the Street" video segments to promote the movie, something he had previously stated he would only do on special occasions.
While "Smile" is doing better at the box office, "Bros" appears to be doing better with critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the rom-com presently boasts a 97% rating compared to "Smile's" (still strong) 75%.
In the movie "Bros," Eichner plays Bobby, an intelligent museum executive who falls for Luke Macfarlane's hunky lawyer Aaron. Nicholas Stoller is the director, and the cast also features Guy Branum, Ts Madison, Dot-Marie Jones, Bowen Yang, and Jim Rash.
In the movie "Smile," Sosie Bacon plays a therapist who starts to see visions and strange, smiling figures that only she can see. Parker Finn wrote and helmed the production.
