With just $36.6 million in ticket sales, 'West Side Story' is officially a box office bomb

[Dial H For Hero]

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/26/west-side-story-is-officially-a-box-office-bomb.html

Despite rave reviews, Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” has failed to gain traction with audiences at the box office.

In its first three weeks in cinemas, the adaption of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Award-winning musical, has captured just $36.6 million in global ticket sales. Its production budget was around $100 million, not including marketing costs.

“Sounds like a write-off to me,” said Eric Handler, media and entertainment analyst at MKM Partners. “The markets that have done the best have been New York and L.A. The film wasn’t able to grab middle America, and it didn’t seem to have that great of a penetration into the Latino community.”

“West Side Story” tells the tale of love-struck teenagers from two different social classes in New York City during the 1950s. Tony, a young white boy with ties to a gang called the Jets, and Maria, a young Puerto Rican girl with ties to the Sharks gang. The Sharks and the Jets are in the midst of a struggle for control of the Upper West Side of the city, making Tony and Maria’s love forbidden.

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[Ocelot II]

1. I've heard it's very good, and the original was one of the few Broadway shows

that IMO didn't suck, but why remake something that was a brilliant classic in the first place?

[pidge]

7. I saw it on Broadway stage in the late 50s.......wonderful.

[nocoincidences]

2. I think the timing of the release is really bad.

Covid has an effect on everything, including how willing people are to go and sit in a crowded movie theatre.

[jimfields33]

5. I don't think that's true at all.

Spider-Man is making historic money. If a movie is good, people will flock to it.

[BeyondGeography]

6. Bad idea is more like it

A remake of a 60-year-old musical. I’m too lazy to check, but did that ever work?

[Casady1]

8. It is not a remake and if you would spend some time researching it

you would know that. Most people consider the finest score ever written. The music is timeless and never seems dated. It is a truly brilliant piece and has had more renewals than any other play.

[BeyondGeography]

16. You should tell the New Yorker what a "remake" is

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/review-steven-spielbergs-west-side-story-remake-is-worse-than-the-original

Nor do I need any lectures on the quality of the original. On the musical front, Dudamel v. Bernstein is not a fair fight. I saw one insipid clip of America and knew this version was doomed.

[Casady1]

17. You were the one who

opined with a putdown. Think about it.

[tanyev]

3. We absolutely want to see it, but not in a theater. Not now.

[elleng]

4. Sorry to hear it, sorry I can't contribute to it's success,

no useful theaters around here.

(I DO love the original.)

[Tomconroy]

9. Let's face it. We don't exactly live in age of great good taste.

[aeromanKC]

10. Not going to spend $15 to sit with a mask on and watch a movie

While omicron spores are dancing around our head.

We will wait for the stream.

[left-of-center2012]

11. I never wanted to see the original

Gang members singing and dancing in an alley?

Seriously?
No thank you.

[Journeyman]

12. Classic theater is so much better, far more worthy of appreciation . . .

I like William Shakespeare. How about you?

I especially believe Romeo and Juliet is a timeless tale of young love.

Sure, it's a derivative story taken from an old poem, but remarkable in its production.

What do you think?

[Journeyman]

13. Oh, geez, are you ever right? Who'd want to listen to gangbangers singing in an alley? . . .

I mean, how beautiful could those lyrics be? It's not like you'd ever hear any singer of note belting out a gangbanger tune . . .

[left-of-center2012]

14. Not interested.

New York gangs dancing and singing in an alley.
No thank you.

[Journeyman]

15. Good for you! Deny them the good graces of your company . . .

What could they possibly learn from you?

[Casady1]

18. Don't see it

just listen to the original Broadway production. Even my kids love it and they are in their twenties. It is one of the most fabulous scores ever written. As opposed to other plays who I think can come across as outdated this does not. It combines Latin and Jazz along with great lyrics. Never close your mind isn't that what liberals are supposed to embody.