Sasha Baron Cohen’s Brüno - the Universal and Media Rights Capital (MRC) film - promises to push the boundaries of taste in a very cash-positive way when it opens on July 10th. Below, the “Red Band” restricted trailer - MySpace video is on-and-off, so via TrailerAddict:

After the jump, a comparison of Brüno v. Borat with 14 Brüno aggregated clips to boot…

With Borat, released by Fox, the studio wasn’t sure how the film would perform given its racy content, so they scaled back from 2500 screens to initially launch on roughly 800 screens, then quickly re-opened to 2500 screens, missing what some would forecast to be $53 million in lost box office.

Now with Sasha Baron Cohen, via MRC, being paid upfront $42.5 million by Universal, there needs to be no hold backs in terms of release to threaten that big advance. Per Slate, which writes an intriguing tale of MRC’s production capabilities alongside Endeavor:

For its $42.5 million, Universal got rights to the movie in English-speaking countries, Germany, Austria, and let us not forget Belgium and the Netherlands [...] Cohen’s Ali G movie did $15 million in the United Kingdom in the pre-Borat days, he says, and Borat pulled in almost $40 million there. So (he argues), it made sense for Universal to wager that Bruno can pull in enough money even in its limited territories—one of which is the United States, after all. (Bear in mind that studios get to keep about half of those grosses. But the Endeavor source says Universal cannot lose money on the movie even if it’s terrible.)

That said, Borat was also more unbelievable in terms of character, compared to Bruno. With Universal already pushing out a MPAA restricted “Red Band” trailer - which shows they support the film strongly enough to play up the controversy - it will be interesting to see on just how many screens they blast Brüno.

Many in the film industry are also eyeing Brüno as a guaranteed home-run. From comments on Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily - urging William Morris Agency head Jim Wiatt to not let the Brüno box office bonanza push him to merge WMA with the Endeavor agency - to nearly all of the early SXSW Festival clip reviewers being ecstatic about Sasha Baron Cohen’s outrageousness.

And now for the Brüno video gallery:

Brüno interviews gay converting priest

Brüno interviews Jonathan Antin

Bruno - Fashion Polizei

Bruno - Fashion Show

Brüno in Alabama

Brüno - Austria Gay TV

Brüno - Club in Miami

Brüno -  Neo Nazi’s

Brüno goes to a Christian rock festival

Brüno - Psychic

Brüno goes to a Missy Elliot audition

Brüno Interviews Gisele Bundchen

Brüno Crashes Catwalk During Fashion Show

Brüno Crashes Prop 8 Rally