It grossed $9.6 from Friday to Sunday, bringing its cumulative total to $71.3 million domestically and $80.5 million internationally.Gone with the Wind held the record of highest-grossing film for twenty-five years and, adjusted for inflation, has earned more than any other film.įilms generate income from several revenue streams, including theatrical exhibition, home video, television broadcast rights, and merchandising. Second place for the weekend went to Disney’s animated “Encanto,” which held strongly in its third week, dropping only 27% from the previous weekend. Days before its Lincoln Center premiere, the musical’s revered lyricist, Stephen Sondheim, died at age 91. It was developed at 20th Century Fox, which was acquired by the Walt Disney Co. Its release was delayed a year by the pandemic. “So far, the first European openings have been good, but this is going to be a challenge with moviegoing conditions as difficult as they are.” “If ‘West Side Story’ is going to be profitable, it will need to connect internationally as well as domestically,” Gross said in an email. Why the ‘West Side Story’ remake changed these 5 key musical numbersįans of the classic film starring Natalie Wood will notice major changes in Steven Spielberg’s remake. 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.
“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 a beloved musical. 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 Hansen,” 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 Tony Kushner writing the script 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.
and Canada - 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. Despite critical acclaim and two years 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 for the U.S.