Sorry to Bother You

Principal photography began on June 22, 2017, in Oakland, California,[13] and concluded on July 30, 2017.[14]

It was rumored that Steve Buscemi performed Danny Glover's character's "white voice", but Riley said it was actually the film's sound engineer.[6]

Following the premiere at Sundance, producer Megan Ellison gave Riley $200,000 for reshoots and an additional scene.[4]

The film score was composed and performed by Tune-Yards. Riley and The Coup recorded an original soundtrack for the film as well, which was released June 13, 2018.[15][16] The first single, "OYAHYTT", featuring Lakeith Stanfield, was released July 13, 2018.

Boots Riley has said that the film offers a radical class analysis of capitalism,[14] not a specific analysis of the United States under President Trump. He wrote the initial screenplay during the Obama administration,[14][17] and the target was never any specific elected official or movement, but "the puppetmasters behind the puppets."[18][19] While most of the final script remained the same, minimal changes were made to avoid appearing to critique Trump specifically, including removing a line where a character says "Worry Free is making America great again,"[20] written before Trump used the line in his 2016 presidential campaign.

The film's title has a double meaning, referencing both the phrase's use by telemarketers and its general usage when telling a person something they might not like to hear, such as the film's anti-capitalist message. According to Riley, "when you're telling someone something that is different from how they view things, different from how they view the world, it feels like an annoyance or a bother. And that's where that comes from."[14] The plot of a strike was used to reflect the need to "organize people in the workplace" and for workers to recognize their power.[21]

When asked on his choice to cast Armie Hammer as Steve Lift, Riley said that Hammer was a "lovable dude" whose casting reflects the "new capitalism" in which the realities of working conditions are hidden, referencing lines such as "I'm not your boss, I'm your friend."[14]

As of December 14, 2018, Sorry to Bother You has grossed $17.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $792,464 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $18.3 million,[5] against a production budget of $3.2 million.[4]

The film earned $727,266 from 16 theaters in its limited opening weekend, for an average of $45,452, the fourth-best average of 2018. It finished 16th at the weekend box office.[31] It had its wide release, in 805 theaters, on July 13, alongside the openings of Skyscraper and Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, and was forecast to gross around $3.5 million over the weekend.[32] The film made more on its first day of wide release ($1.5 million) than it had in its full week of limited ($1.1 million). It went on to gross $4.3 million over the weekend, an increase of 485%, finishing 7th at the box office.[33] The film was added to another 245 theaters in its third week of release and made $2.8 million, finishing 10th.[34]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 93% based on 285 reviews, with an average rating of 7.73/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Fearlessly ambitious, scathingly funny, and thoroughly original, Sorry to Bother You loudly heralds the arrival of a fresh filmmaking talent in writer-director Boots Riley."[35] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100, based on 51 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[36] Audiences polled by PostTrak gave the film an 84% overall positive score and a 72% "definite recommend".[31]

James Berardinelli of ReelViews said "Sorry to Bother You blends conventional comedy with political satire to produce a film that will generate laughter and a sense of discomfort in equal doses."[37] David Sims of The Atlantic wrote, "The story's heightened reality works best when it's barely distinguishable from our own—though it starts to lose steam the more it drifts into fantasy. The movie is at times a mess, but a compelling one, and this debut from Boots Riley should herald a fascinating filmmaking career."[38] Peter Debruge of Variety magazine praised the film, calling it "deliriously creative and ambitious to a fault", but expressed reservations about its second half: "As the movie's allegorical relation to real-world problems blurs, audiences are left to wonder what Riley's point is supposed to be."[39] Jesse Hassenger of The A.V. Club described the film as "often wildly funny, and if its broad arc is familiar stuff about a down-on-his-luck everyman experiencing success but at what cost, at least the plot specifics are unpredictable".[40] Randall Colburn of Consequence of Sound called it "a mess, but a glorious one" and said it "is fun until it's overwhelming, and Riley would likely have benefited from a good editor."[41]

A.A. Dowd of The A.V. Club reviewed the film at the Sundance Film Festival and dissented from his peers, calling it "a scattershot, intermittently pointed satire whose jokes and insights land with about the same (in)frequency." Dowd was critical of the writing and direction: "There's a messy, first-draft quality to how the film fits said ideas together, and a general sloppiness to the execution, with Riley botching the timing on too many jokes ... Sorry To Bother You is plainly a first feature, and that's no insult: Even as some of the film's comedy fell flat for me, I distantly admired its something-to-prove chutzpah."[42]