The Big Bang Theory star has written a big comedy

Sometimes a movie just doesn’t get the shake it deserves, even when it feels like all the right pieces are in place. So it was with “Bronze”. A comedy released by Sony Pictures Classics in 2016, the film was practically dead on arrival and was barely seen by moviegoers at the time, despite being written by and starring Melissa Rauch from The Big Bang Theory.. Mind you, this was back when the CBS sitcom was still thriving on the air. So what went wrong?

For those who may not be familiar, The Bronze centers on Hope Anne Gregory (Rauch). Once America’s sweetheart, Hope’s performance on the achilles gap at a prestigious gymnastics tournament when she was younger brought fame to her small Ohio hometown. However, in the years since winning third place, she has accomplished little in her life. Still living in her father Stan’s (Gary Cole) basement, Hope spends her days at the mall enjoying her juvenile celebrity. That is, until her routine is disrupted when she learns that she must coach the town’s newest gymnastics prodigy, Maggie (Haley Lou Richardson), in order to receive a large inheritance.

Commercial director Brian Buckley helmed Bronze, which premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. At that time /FIlm gave the film a score of six out of 10and Sony Pictures Classics eventually swooped in to pick up the rights, ultimately giving the film a theatrical release the following year. In addition to starring, Rauch also stars in a cast that includes Sebastian Stan (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”), Gary Cole (“Office Square”), Thomas Middleditch (“Silicon Valley”) and Cecily Strong (” Saturday Night Live”).

So on paper, Bronze had a very good track record, including a killer cast, a major film festival debut, and a very solid premise. So again, what went wrong? Well, a lot, it turns out.

First, the critics were generally not on the side of “Bronze”. At the time of writing, the film’s approval rating was 37%. Rotten tomatoes. Viewers didn’t react much better, with an audience rating of just 44%. It’s always hard to overcome that kind of critical reception, no matter the genre or who’s in your film. There are situations like Venom where critics mostly dislike the film and audiences disagree. Here? They were pretty much evened out.

To make matters worse, Sony released the film in a packed March back in 2016. To begin with, Disney’s Zootopia was in the midst of a record $1 billion box office runtopping the charts for the third weekend in a row. There were other audience-friendly holdovers like “10 Cloverfield Lane,” “Deadpool” and “The Revenant” doing business as well.

As for new releases that weekend, Lionsgate released Allegiant, the third film in the Divergent franchise.as well as the religious picture Miracles from Heaven, both finished in the top five. That didn’t leave much room for “Bronze,” which came in at No. 25, earning just $386,328 from 1,167 screens at a staggering $331 per screen. It was completely DOA and exited theaters within a few weeks, making just $615,816. 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 blockbuster-sized fortunes on the line.

In this case, the film made its way to broadcast, where it had the opportunity to find an audience for years to come. To what extent the Hulu or VOD launches helped Sony recoup its investment is unknown, but there’s no two ways about it: it just didn’t work in the original run.

“The Bronze” is now available on VOD, or you can grab it on Blu-ray/DVD via Amazon.