Steven Spielberg’s lavish modern remake of West Side Story failed to kick up much hype at the box office. It did come in at #1, but with a lower than expected $10.5 million. Not the illustrious splash that many anticipated as this is the multiple Academy Award-winning Spielberg’s first attempt at a musical and this picture was expected to rack up a slew of additional nominations.
How poor was this opening? It was lower than that of In the Heights, another adaptation based on a Broadway musical with a Latinx-heavy cast. That film took in $11.5M in its opening weekend but came in second to A Quiet Place Part II. So while West Side Story made less, at least it took the top spot. But, In the Heights wound up being a flop, so things don’t look great for West Side Story.
To reinforce this, West Side Story made $800K from Thursday night previews, the exact amount that Dear Evan Hansen made. Once again, things don’t look great.
But lackluster box office aside, is this film any good? It appears it’s pretty freakin’ GREAT! It has a stellar 93% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 94% verified audience score. Exiting audiences bestowed it with an A rating via CinemaScore.
The speculation is that West Side Story would have potentially done a lot better had it come out Christmas weekend, a period in which splashy musicals have thrived in years past– Mary Poppins Returns, The Greatest Showman… we won’t mention one notable exception.
It is interesting to note that the top two movies are Latinx-themed musicals from Disney, although West Side Story is technically from subsidiary 20th Century Studios. The animated Encanto is still going strong at #2.
There was very little movement in the Top Five outside of the premiere of West Side Story. You can see the rest below:
-
- West Side Story (20th Century Studios/Disney) – $10.5M/Wk 1
- Encanto (Disney) – $9.42M – Total $71.3M/Wk 3
- Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Sony) – $7.1M – Total $112M/Wk 4
- House of Gucci (United Artist Releasing/MGM) – $4.06M – Total $41M/Wk 3
- Eternals (Marvel Studios/Disney) – $3.1M – Total $161.2M/Wk 6
There isn’t much coming out next weekend. There’s Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley… oh and freakin’ SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME!!!
This WILL be the best opening of the pandemic with some eyeing its initial haul to be as high as $250M. (The previous record-holder was Venom: Let There Be Carnage which opened with $90.1M.) That $250M projection may be a bit generous… or is it conservative? One thing that is true, when tickets went up for pre-orders, Fandango and other ticket sites crashed and some buyers spent hours waiting to process their orders… if they were lucky and screenings hadn’t sold out by then.
Spider-Man‘s opening explains WHY the Steven Speilberg musical had to be released this weekend. Had it opened on Christmas weekend, it would be facing off against Spider-Man in its second frame. And don’t expect ol’ Webhead to dwindle very much by then. It is fully expected that No Way Home will stay at #1 into the New Year. (That is unless it turns out Tobey and Andrew actually aren’t in it and that sends nerds into a rage and kills repeat viewings.)
Then again, West Side Story is aimed at a different demographic– older women– and reportedly, Disney plans to continue promoting this musical through Christmas in hopes of presenting it as alternative programming to the younger and male-skewing Spider-Man. The studio hopes to turn West Side Story into a “sleeper” hit in the coming weeks.
Will that plan work out? We’ll see! Check back next week to see just how big Spider-Man‘s opening is and to see if West Side Story can dance fight its way to success.
