It seems like people really do want to see movie musicals after all
Despite recent advertising obscuring the fact that movie musicals are, indeed, musicals, The Color Purple and Wonka cleaned up at the box office
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Hollywood (or at least Hollywood’s various marketing firms) seems to have forgotten an old adage: the show must go on. There are always going to be new musicals. There are always going to be directors who want to turn those new musicals into movies. There are always going to be people who really want to watch those musical movies, despite the fact that studios seem to think audiences would rather be surprised with a choreographed opening number than understand that the movie they’re about to see is a musical in the first place.
In recent months, we’ve found ourselves commenting again and again on a pretty baffling trend in movie marketing: musical movies are simply not being advertised as musicals. You’d never know Karen sings a song about sexy corn (or anything else) in the new Mean Girls adaptation, and we didn’t get to hear Timothée Chalamet’s “beautiful singing voice” that reminded Wonka’s director of Bing Crosby until the film actually premiered. Even The Color Purple’s trailer only featured a few vocal clips here and there.
“If you spell out the word musical, people have pre-formed opinions. Musical has a connotation that [characters] are going to sing every word, and audiences can be turned off,” one marketing exec told The Hollywood Reporter. But people have not been turned off. People, in fact, seem to have more of a song in their hearts than, if not ever, at least than they have in a while.
This Christmas, The Color Purple won big at the box office. Despite a projected gross of somewhere between $8 million and $13 million (per Forbes), the film actually brought in $18 million on its opening day, outpacing not only fellow premieres Ferrari and The Boys In The Boat, but also major, family-friendly titles like Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom, Wonka, and Migration. The Color Purple is now the second most successful Christmas day premiere of all time, second only to 2009's Sherlock Holmes. That also puts it ahead of other successful musical openings in years past, including 2012's Les Misérables, 2014's Into The Woods, and, yes, 2019's Cats.
But it’s not just the Fantasia Barrino-starring film that’s seeing such massive returns. Wonka opened to a sweet $39 million and has already made $89 million domestically, a cool chunk of its $125 million budget. Songs from its soundtrack have already reached a million streams on YouTube. Both films are certified hits.
This resurgent interest in musicals could be the result of a whole chorus of things. Wonka has mostly original music, for example, which in this era of franchise fatigue holds a little extra luster. The Color Purple, conversely, is a new take on a beloved story that many may have missed during its relatively short Broadway runs. Maybe people have managed to selectively forget Dear Evan Hansen. Maybe the bizarre marketing tactic is actually working. It’s hard to know for sure. But with exciting offerings like Mean Girls and Wicked still on the horizon, one thing is clear: it’s an exciting time to be a theater kid. Maybe after this run, Hollywood will finally give the movie musical the ovation it deserves.
12 Comments
Genuine question: Are these “box office takes” pieces fun to write or do they just keep the bills paid?
They’re definitely good for SEO, I’m sure. And it’s of some interest to some folk at least.
Me, I love stage musicals and generally hate movie musicals outside of a select few. I’m giving Wonka and The Color Purple a pass.
The google algorithm fucking loves precise numbers. “This movie took $3.5 million on its opening weekend!” is like crack to it.
I saw Wonka yesterday. It was… pretty good! Quite delightful in a lot of ways. I know we all groaned when we first heard that Timmy C was going to be playing a young Wonka, but it actually worked out okay. Chalamet himself is actually the weakest part of the movie; he’s not bad, just kind of miscast. The movie is very silly and whimsical, which is what one should expect from the guy who directed Paddington.Speaking of musicals, this was on a TV in the lounge outside the theater, possibly the most tasteless (pun intended) tie-in I’ve ever seen:
That’s not a fucking “The Color Purple”: it’s a fucking Fruit Tingle, more or less.
I know, because I spent a good deal of uni drinking it straight from one of these fuckers, as did any student in Brissie:Two Pommy pints of Fruit Tingle in a plastic jug, man, I tell you, makes for some pretty festive chunder.
Idk where this notion came from – I went to music theatre school (college round 1!) and personally I ADORE a well made movie musical. I cried when I saw La La Land in theatres and I don’t understand why the Wicked film is taking so long. I literally have “Dicks: The Musical” cued up as my next film to watch over the holiday.
I was ignoring Wonka but…. is it a straight adaptation of the stage musical version? Cuz that I would love to see… is it that? Why wasnt it advertised as that…? I would have been first in line..
There’s way too many music theatre kids (looool and not enough jobs!) why on earth does Hollywood not think there’s an audience for this?
I know I don’t. Y’all have fun.
Isn’t the point then that people are getting tricked into watching musicals? West Side Story and Dicks: The Musical didn’t have tremendous returns, and while there are other reasons for them underperforming, there are also other reasons why Wonka and The Color Purple would overperform. Especially if the marketing wizards were aware that hiding the musical part would help.I’m not a big fan of musicals in general, but I liked Wonka well enough. Actually the past few years have had a surprising run of musicals that I’ve enjoyed, even on TV. I’m still wary of the genre but it didn’t stop me from watching several of them recently, even some that the marketing didn’t attempt to hide from me.
On the other hand, the limited cinema run of Waitress did so well that they extended it, & the marketing there was very clear that it was a musical, no trickery involved.I’m curious to see how Mean Girls fares, since the only glimpse of song in that trailer was Regina’s cringey name-drop line.
I had no idea this is a musical until right now. I’m still shocked that advanced tickets were nearly sold out at one of my local theatres – the one without IMAX, which was interesting. And my town is quite racist so glad it premiered here and that it’s done well. I gave it a pass because I thought it was a remake and nothing can replace the original. Now that I know it’s a different genre I’ll see it on streaming.
Btw: I don’t know this film’s program but musicals don’t “sing every word.” That’s an opera. Maybe TCP has broken the ‘rule’.
I don’t know this film’s program but musicals don’t “sing every word.” That’s an opera. Maybe TCP has broken the ‘rule’.It’s not what musicals are; it’s what a prejudiced public thinks musicals are.