The West Side Story features Tony and Rachel Zegler.
The photo was taken by Niko Tavernise.
West Side Story made a mediocre $4.1 million at the box office. This is below the $5 million Friday for In the Heights because of the Covid variables keeping older viewers out of cinemas. Many of us hoped for a good-natured fight between the two monsters. There is a fight between Steven Spielberg's Hispanic-focused musical and Jon M. Chu's Hispanic-focused musical. It was expected to be a "no matter who wins, we win" match between old-school nostalgia and of-the-moment topicality, with two well-reviewed and well-received musicals reestablishing the pre- Covid reliability of the musical as a "folks" West Side Story may not make $10 million for the weekend, despite earning $11.5 million on opening weekend.
Many people thought online interest and demographically-specific media passion were related to general audience interest in In the Heights. Warner Bros. knew that the hype wasn't going to extend beyond Film Twitter. Steven Spielberg was in the director's chair and that was the only reason we thought a newfangled West Side Story would score in 2021. Ready Player One made $581 million in worldwide sales in the year. It didn't move the needle in the summer of 2016 with The BFG. Spielberg's recent historical dramas have been decent-sized hits. Tom Hanks was in two of those and he was the most bankable part. West Side Story had no stars.
There are seven people in 'In the Heights', including Corey Hawks, Gregory Diamond IV, Anthony Ramirez, Stephen BEATRIZ, Leslie Grace, and Dakota Rubin-Vega.
The Warner Bros.
The long-term picture is more complicated than it was for the musical. West Side Story is in the thick of the Oscar race because of Rave reviews and the Spielberg factor. Disney still views the 20th Century release as their top contender despite the fact that a big opening would have turned it into a front-runner. Warner Bros. juggles Dune and King Richard. Slow-to- grow movies targeting adults can have ridiculous legs over the holiday season. The two week year-end portion where everyone is off school and/or off-work turns a bunch of weekdays into weekends. Had The Greatest Showman opened in the middle of the summer, it would have made $174 million.
I'm not saying that West Side Story will be a hit. It is a known quantity, is longer and less-kid-friendly, and has a downer ending. The Mule made $104 million from a $17.5 million debut, while Jumanji: The Next Level made $299 million from a $1 billion debut. The best-case scenario is legs like The Emperor's New Groove, which would give it an unremarkable $91 million domestic finish. I'm optimistic it will make money over the holidays, but it may not be enough when you're dealing with a $10 million opening.
STX Entertainment snuck National Champs into 1,200 theaters yesterday because nobody showed up for the kind of intelligent, adult-skewing, inclusive, non-franchise films we all want. The drama is about a star college football player who tries to get his teammates to sit out on the championship game to demand that NCAA athletes be paid. Stephan James, J.K. Simmons, Uzo Aduba, and Jeffrey Donovan are some of the actors in the show. The film earned $120,000 yesterday and is expected to make $320,000 million in its opening weekend. That is the 17th lowest per-theater average ever for a wide release.
The STX release cost $8 million and the studio hopes that the film's small theatrical exposure will boost its profile as a pay TV title. That may be cynical, but it may be the only commercially viable way to release a film like this in theaters. The kind of movie that gets ignored in theaters only to become a big hit when it arrives on the streaming service is called National Champs, which is worth your time and money. The platforms still rely on forgotten studio programmers as more A-level content than media-friendly originals, despite the fact that streaming is discussed as a replacement for theatrical exhibition.
The Matrix actors face each other in a scene from the movie. In this scene, Neo and Smith are fighting. Ronald Siemoneit/Sygma/Sygma is pictured.
The images are from the Getty Images.
Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, which opened just this past summer and earned $152 million on a $45 million budget, was the top movie on Friday. I remember when an original, R-rated, high-concept thriller starring Jamie Foxx andGerard Butler could be a hit with $128 million worldwide on a $50 million budget. The only new release this weekend is Warner Bros.' rerelease of The Matrix. The IMAX release of The Wachowskis' smash was timed to the upcoming release of Matrix: Resurrections on December 22. The movie earned $78,000 in 700 theaters for a likely $215,000 weekend. That is still a better per-theater average than National Champs.
