Box Office Report: 'Bruno' ist No. 1 with $30.4 mil | Showbiz News and Scoop | Studio and Network Dish | EW.com

Bruno is predicted to crater.

The CinemaScore ratings were Cs (quite weak), so word of mouth is not expected to be good. The film had an outstanding Friday, when it finished first by such a wide margin that it nearly equalled the next two films added together, but died instantly. It actually finished in 3rd place on Saturday and 3rd again on Sunday.

I saw it in a theater which was only about a third full, but the crowd was enthusiastic and verbal. There was a lot of laughter, as well as a lot of groans, so the audience was involved and interacting with the film. I heard only favorable remarks from people as they exited the theater. My own response was dominated not by amusement, but by my admiration for Sascha's daring. He is the champion of street theater, the best since Andy Kaufman passed away, perhaps better than Kaufman. I was constantly amazed by the lengths he was willing to go for his character, and I was squirming uncomfortably several times, which is basically the reaction he tries to provoke. Instead of laughing, I kept thinking, "He's not really going to do that ..." But he did. The man has no limits. He'll push people as far as he can, whether making man-on-man love in front of a redneck UFC crowd, or stripping nearly naked while alone in a hotel room with Ron Paul, or going on a hunting trip and trying to get into a good-ol'-boy's tent stark naked, or presenting his "gayby" African baby to an African-American talk show audience, or graphically miming a blow job to a spirit summoned by a medium, or telling a radical Muslim terrorist that Osama needs a makeover because he looks like a dirty Santa Claus. It's amazing that Cohen is still alive.

The most incredible part of what Cohen achieves is to get people to respond outrageously on camera. At one point he is holding auditions for additional babies. The premise is that his baby is going to pose as Jesus being crucified, and he needs two other babies to be the two thieves on the other crosses. He interviews various stage parents, and one cannot help but be shocked by the things they agree to subject their baby to in order to get the job. One parent basically agrees to let Bruno use her baby as a crash test dummy. Another says that a 30 pound child can lose ten pounds in a week. Another says there's no problem if the baby works with dangerous chemicals. And so forth. All of this happens while they know the camera is rolling!