‘Bottoms’ Brings It On As Raunchy Teen Comedy Expands Nationwide – Specialty Preview
01.09.2023 - 22:41
/ deadline.com
MGM’s raunchy high school comedy Bottoms by Emma Seligman, a surprising teen girl version of Fight Club, is punching into a lot more theaters this week, expanding from 10 to 715 nationwide. The numbers so far look solid and MGM might be hoping for anything in the $2.5 million-plus range over the three days.
It had an good start with last weekend’s limited 10-theater opening in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Austin bringing in more than $500,000, one of the best per-theater openings of that size post Covid (even with $4 tickets Sunday). Cume to date tops $724K for the Rachel Sennott- and Ayo Edebiri-starring film that’s got major traction with younger and LGBTQ+ moviegoers.
The duo play queer high-school seniors and longtime best friends PJ and Josie, who start a self-defense club for girls hoping to attract cheerleaders, and to have sex with them. The group starts slow but gains traction and soon has even the most popular girls joyfully beating each other bloody.
Comps are tough. A24s Bodies Bodies Bodies (also starring Sennot), aimed at a similar demo, opened strong on six screens in August 2022. The Pete Davidson title grossed $3.25M its second weekend on 1,285 screens.
Producers Elizabeth Banks and her Brownstone Productions, along with husband Max Handelman, are behind the goofy gory breakout hit Cocaine Bair, their previous project.
Bottoms is is 95% Certified Fresh with critics, 97% with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Seligman wrote the screenplay with Sennott, who also starred in the helmer’s 2020 indie Shiva Baby. Edebiri broke out in The Bear.
Word of mouth and social media conversation has been pretty explosive. The question this weekend is how the film will play in multiplexes outside of