Gay men are flocking to watch Channing
Tatum, Joe Manganiello and Matt Bomer play strippers in Director
Steven Soderbergh's Magic Mike.
The film has no gay storyline, but it
does feature handsome men stripping in a club. And many of the
film's stars have a gay following.
“It's a fun night out with a bunch of
gay friends to go see a movie about hot boys,” Aaron Rhyne, 32,
told The
New York Times.
Bill Venne, 49, of Minneapolis saw the
movie on Sunday with 16 gay men and one straight woman.
“Let's be honest; it's men taking
their clothes off,” he said. “It's the kind of thing you want to
see, but not by yourself. A middle-aged gay guy in the audience
might as well be wearing a trench coat.”
Sue Kroll, president for worldwide
marketing at Warner Brothers Pictures, said that the studio began
marketing the film to the segment after its appeal to gay men became
clear.
“Every single one of my gay friends
was talking about how they couldn't wait to see it and how gorgeous
Matt Bomer is,” she said. “It wasn't like we sat down and said,
'This is the target.' But we handled it a bit more specifically for
this movie.”
Last month, the studio promoted the
film's opening at Gay Pride events across the country, including a
Magic Mike float seen in the West Hollywood parade.
(A trailer for the film is embedded in
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