Greg Berlanti's Love, Simon has already proved that queer coming-of-age stories are profitable, recouping well over half its budget its opening weekend. The film, produced for $17 million, scored $11,756,244 on its opening weekend. Nearly two weeks later, the 91 percent Rotten Tomatoes-rated flick is still the seventh highest-grossing film currently in release, behind many larger-budgeted franchise films, like Pacific Rim: Uprising and Black Panther.
In a time when young love is plummeting in the box office, this queer story is thriving. With over $24 million just two weeks in, Box Office Mojo ranks Love, Simon in the top 25 highest-grossing teen romances of all time.
Five of the highest-grossing teen romances are in the Twilight saga, and the list is dominated by movies released before 2010. It's likely that Love, Simon will beat out modern box office successes like Paper Towns and Everything, Everything in the weeks to come -- both of those films actually had queer lead actresses, with Cara Delevigne starring in Paper Towns, while Amandla Stenberg spearheaded Everything, Everything.
Also of note, Simon made nearly $7 million more than Call Me by Your Name, though the latter film was released in a smaller number of theaters.
