A Big Bang Theory star wrote a huge comedy flop

Sometimes a movie just doesn’t get the fair treatment it deserves, even if all the right pieces seem to be in place. Such was the case of “The Bronze.” A comedy released by Sony Pictures Classics in 2016, the film was practically dead on arrival and barely registered with moviegoers at the time despite being written by and starring Melissa Rauch of “The Big Bang Theory” fame. Mind you, this was when the CBS comedy was still thriving on the air. So what went wrong?

For those unfamiliar, “The Bronze” centers on Hope Ann Greggory (Rauch). Once America’s sweetheart, Hope’s performance with a ruptured Achilles tendon in a prestigious gymnastics tournament when she was younger brought glory to her small hometown in Ohio. However, in the years since that third-place victory, he hasn’t done much with his life. Hope, still living in her father Stan’s (Gary Cole) basement, spends her days at the mall taking advantage of her minor celebrity. That is, until his routine changes when he discovers he must train the town’s new gymnastics prodigy, Maggie (Haley Lu Richardson), to receive a large inheritance.

Commercial director Bryan Buckley directed “The Bronze,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015. At the time, /FIlm gave the film a six out of 10 review, and Sony Pictures Classics ended up swooping in to grab it. with the rights. ultimately gave the film a theatrical release the following year. Not only does Rauch star, but his cast also includes Sebastian Stan (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”), Gary Cole (“Office Space”), Thomas Middleditch (“Silicon Valley”) and Cecily Strong. (“Saturday Night Live”).

So on paper, “The Bronze” had a lot going for it, including an excellent cast, a major film festival debut, and a very solid premise. So once again, what went wrong? Well, it turns out a lot.

First of all, critics were generally not on the side of “The Bronze.” As of this writing, the film has a pretty dismal 37% approval rating on rotten tomatoes. Viewers did not respond much better, as the audience rating only stands at 44%. It’s always hard to top critical reception like that, regardless of the genre or who’s in the film. There are situations like “Venom” where critics largely dislike the movie but audiences disagree. Here? They were largely aligned.

To make matters worse, Sony released the film in a packed March in 2016. For starters, Disney’s “Zootopia” was in the midst of its billion-dollar record run, topping the charts for the third weekend in a row. There were also other crowd-friendly holdovers, such as “10 Cloverfield Lane,” “Deadpool” and “The Revenant,” that also did business.

As for new releases that weekend, Lionsgate released “Allegiant,” the third film in the “Divergent” franchise, and also arrived the faith-based film “Miracles from Heaven,” both of which finished in the top five. That didn’t leave much room for “The Bronze,” which finished in 25th place, grossing just $386,328 on 1,167 screens for a dismal average of $331 per screen. It was completely DOA and left theaters within a few weeks, earning just $615,816 in total. The only advantage for Sony here was the budget, which was a modest $3.5 million. So thankfully, it’s not like the studio had a blockbuster-sized fortune at stake here.

That being the case, the film made its way to streaming, where it had the opportunity to find an audience throughout the following years. It’s unknown to what extent runs on Hulu or VOD helped Sony recoup its investment, but, there’s no doubt, this one simply didn’t work in its original run.

“The Bronze” is currently available on VOD, or you can get it on Blu-ray/DVD through Amazon.