I’ve been following the discourse on this, which is fascinating. A lot of finger pointing going around. My 2 cents: 1. Theatrical rom-coms work, see The Lost City receipts from earlier this year 2. Cast drives box office - I just don’t think Billy Eichner is a big enough star for this distribution strategy (plus a lot of people dislike him) 3. October is a weird month to launch a theatrical rom-com. I get they were thinking counter programming to horror, but I just don’t think that works for theatres anymore. Universal is launching the new George Clooney, Julia Roberts romance, Ticket to Paradise later this month so we will see. If they can’t make theatrical romance work in the fall then I don’t know what will. 4. There will be a big debate about gay romance films. They have had critical success in the drama category but haven’t received much love in comedy. Fire Island has been the only one I can think of that launched this summer on Hulu that has done well. Personally I think this should’ve been a streaming title and it probably would’ve been a hit. Thoughts?

Posted by Bettys Book Club at 2022-10-03 18:14:55 UTC