![]() ![]() “To draw moviegoers to adult dramas in huge numbers right now seems like a pretty heavy lift,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for data firm Comscore. Many moviegoers simply haven’t returned yet. ![]() Instead, little right now outside of Marvel releases is finding big audiences. Hopes had long been pinned on Spielberg, with his song-and-dance spectacular, to bring back some of the movies’ mojo. Film executives are hoping the spreading omicron variant of COVID-19 doesn’t set the box office back just as Hollywood is nearing its most profitable period.īut the muted reception for “West Side Story” will concern the industry. “West Side Story” can still be expected to play well through the lucrative holiday corridor, during which younger-skewing films like “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (expected to next weekend become the first pandemic release to open with $100 million or more domestically) and “Sing 2” will likely be the top draws. The 1961 film, directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, made $43.7 million (or about $400 million adjusted for inflation) and won 10 Oscars, including best picture. “West Side Story,” too, is among the most beloved musicals. Surely, one of the movies’ dazzling craftsmen, a director synonymous with box office, could spark a fuller revival in theaters. ![]() If anyone could reignite moviegoing, the thinking went, it was him. The critically panned “Dear Evan Hanson,” from Universal, debuted with $7.4 million in September.īut this was Spielberg. release simultaneously streamed on HBO Max. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “In the Heights” launched with $11 million in June but the Warner Bros. Musicals, too, have struggled to catch on in theaters. Audiences have steadily returned to multiplexes in the second year of the pandemic, but older moviegoers, who made up the bulk of ticket-buyers for Spielberg’s latest, have been among the slowest to return. It hit theaters on a wave of glowing reviews and expectations that it could play a starring role in March’s Academy Awards.īut “West Side Story” faced a challenging marketplace for both adult-driven releases and musicals. With a script by Tony Kushner and Rita Moreno returning to her breakthrough film 60 years later, the $100-million “West Side Story” epitomizes a grand-scale prestige film that Hollywood infrequently produces anymore. ![]() NEW YORK > Despite critical acclaim and two years-worth of anticipation, Steven Spielberg’s lavish “West Side Story” revival made little noise at the box office, debuting with $10.5 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday - a worrisome result for a movie industry struggling to recapture its finger-snapping rhythm.Ī dazzling widescreen adaptation and Spielberg’s first musical, “West Side Story” was one of the year’s most eagerly awaited titles. ![]()
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