Bros, Billy Eichner and a box office bomb: A case study of the burden of representation

Bros (2022), starring Billy Eichner, was heavily marketed as the first gay romantic comedy given a wide release by a major Hollywood studio. After the film flopped at the box office on opening weekend, users on TikTok weighed in with divisive responses blaming a host of reasons for this failure, including fellow audiences for not showing up. This is a classic example of the burden of representation, a phenomenon wherein a media text showcasing an underrepresented group invites more scrutiny by both industry and audiences due to a lack of others like it. This article analyses both the film’s pre-release promotional discourse through press coverage and its social media reception via TikTok videos to argue that Bros illustrates the constructed pressure for a queer film to perform at the box office and queer intra-community discord after its release, both hallmarks of the burden of representation.