The cringingly mistitled charticle “The Gay Plot: Out of the Celluloid Closet” appeared on the back page of Out, September 2008. In it, Ilya Marritz exclaims “independent gay films can totally crack $100,000 at the box office” – as though that were some kind of triumph.
In fact, Marritz’s reporting shows that “gay” films barely make any money at all. Including seriously questionable outliers like Blades of Glory and I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Buck Larry, the total box-office haul for “gay” moves from 2000–2007 is $970 million. Excluding those outliers, the real number is $732 million. If I am to believe Wikipedia, The Matrix Reloaded earned that much by itself.
Over $10 million
- Monster ($34M)
- Rent ($29M)
- Capote ($28M)
- The Producers ($19M)
- Far from Heaven ($15M)
- Kinsey (≈$10M)
You might disagree about Rent, but weren’t most of these pretty good movies all told?
Over a million
- The Deep End ($8M)
- The Night Listener ($7M)
- Running with Scissors ($7M)
- Before Night Falls ($4M)
- Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (a measly $4M)
- Hedwig (a measly $3M) and Shortbus (just under $2M)
- Chuck & Buck (≈$1M)
Aren’t these the true independent pictures – good script, good actors, just not a whole lot of money to spend?
Under half a million
- The Dying Gaul ($343,000 – this despite quasi-explicit homosexualism enacted by Campbell Scott)
Under $200,000
- Bear Cub (fatties won’t read subtitles? Spanish-speakers don’t want to watch fatties? what?)
- The Business of Fancydancing (fop till you drop!)
- Circuit
- Dahmer (who the fuck wants to watch a movie about Jeffrey Dahmer?)
- Eating Out
- Friends and Family
- The Girl
- Girls Will Be Girls
- Hellbent (surprisingly good)
- 101 Rejkavík
- The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green
- Testosterone
Have you even heard of most of the movies in that last list? Of those you did hear of, do you now think you even should have?