Sure, it's pianos to t-cells, but this year's HBO Sunday night of Memorial Day weekend gay movie failed to match last year's HBO Sunday night of Memorial Day weekend gay movie. In 2013, Behind the Candelabra attracted 3.5 million viewers. Last week, The Normal Heart drew 1.4 million. After a much lamented, much hyped thirty year journey to the screen, this so-so showing will further convince studio execs and multiplex managers that the place for gay drama is television.
FWIW, even with all its awards, and its feel-good trailer, the final US gross for Dallas Buyers Club
was $27.3 million (of which the studio gets roughly $14 million) -- a financial success against its modest budget but not the kind of box office hit to inspire imitations. Another "hard to watch" uplifting downer, 12 Years a Slave, grossed more than twice that, $56.7 million, yet still places third on the unenviable list of Lowest Grossing Best Picture Winners. (Draw your own conclusions from the fact that all three of the top films on that list come from the past five years: In second place is The Artist, with $44.7 million, and in first place, The Hurt Locker with $17 million.)
The film really brought it all back. 1.4 million? At least a million of the viewers were likely older gay men who survived. Think positively that so many men survived a plague that hid in plain sight in its early days. Kudos to HBO.
Posted by: Jimmy | June 08, 2014 at 05:59 AM