"West End Story" began to produce more than 10 million US dollars
On December 10, the song and dance film "West End Story" was unveiled in North American theaters.
With the blessing of Spielberg's director's aura, "West End Story" opened with more than 10 million US dollars, narrowly beating the animated film "Full House" to reach the box office list; with audience praise and media affirmation, "West End Story" hopes to continue in the holiday slot for a long time, and facing "Spider-Man: Heroes Without Return" this week will be a major challenge.
"West End Story" premiered to win the championship, and high word of mouth became the guarantee of endurance
As a legacy of Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox, "West End Story" rolled out to 2,820 theaters in North America, earning $800,000 at zero point, alongside "To Evan Hansen." As a result, "West End Story" won $4.13 million on its first day, which is less than the $5 million of the summer "In the Highlands". In the next two days, "West End Story" fell by 9% and 29%, respectively, showing good resilience.
According to IMDbPro, West End Story closed at $10.57 million in its first weekend, earning $3,749 per library. In contrast, "In the Heights" won $11.5 million in 3456 theaters, two similar films of the same genre; but the latter also launched HBO Max at the same time, and "West End Story" was exclusively screened on the big screen and did not land on streaming until after the 45-day window.
According to The-Numbers' calculation model, comparing song and dance films such as "Cats", "Happy Man 2" and "King of the Circus", and then replacing the return ratio of 63% of offline audiences, the first weekend forecast value of "West End Story" is $6.92 million, which is only equivalent to 65% of the actual figure; if adjusted according to the advance field data, "West End Story" rose to $9.63 million, still 9% lower than the figure announced by the filmmakers.
In fact, most of this year's musical films have struggled, with adaptations of Broadway plays "To Evan Hansen" and "In the Heights" folding, which is related to the fact that the frequency of admission by older audiences is still low. Of course, West End Story has a 93% Freshness Score on Rotten Tomatoes and a high A on CinemaScore. As its word-of-mouth continues to ferment during the awards season, "West End Story" hopes to get out of the Yang market.
Previously championed Disney animation "Full House" took a back seat, falling 24% to $9.99 million at the weekend, and the cumulative box office rose to $71.91 million; before the official launch of Disney+ at Christmas, "Full House" still has the opportunity to hit the billion yuan line. The youth version of "Super Daredevil" also held firmly in the top three, with a total score of $112 million four weeks after its release, and it was only a matter of time before it surpassed "Out of Control Player" ($122 million).
Another new film, the STX-released sports drama "National Champion," earned just $300,000 in 1,197 theaters and didn't even break into the top 10 of the list. In fact, "National Champions" earned as little as $251 per museum, the fourth worst record in history to open in more than 1,000 theaters. "National Champions" was directed by Steven James and J. Thompson. Starring K. Simmons, it tells the story of a college football star fighting for equal pay. "National Champions" director Rick Roman Wolf has led films such as "Angels Fall" and "Doomsday Escape". Rotten Tomatoes has a passing freshness rating of 62%.
This is clearly not good for publisher STX. Throughout the year, STX has shown only one movie in theaters, Prisoner 760, which grossed more than $8.36 million in January. Just before the release of "National Champions," STX announced that billionaire Jam Najfi had acquired the company from Eros International, a news that became a footnote in addition to the box office failure of "National Champions."
Two other streaming films appeared on the big screen ahead of schedule last week, but the filmmakers did not announce the corresponding box office figures. "The Ricardo Family," written and directed by Alan Solkien, takes viewers back to the set of the 50s hit I Love Lucy, in which lucille and Daisy are played by Nicole Kidman and Javier Baden, respectively. The Ricciardo Family has a Rotten Tomatoes freshness rating of just 68%, which is not the same as Alan Sorkin's high score predecessor. More than 10 days after landing in theaters, "Ricardo Family" will be launched on Amazon Prime on December 21.
Don't Look Up is led by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, and directed by "award-winning professional" Adam McKay. The film, which tells the story of two astronomers trying to warn people that the coming comet will destroy the Earth, is closely related to the hot climate change issue in recent years. However, in the face of a 56% Rotten Tomatoes freshness rating, the probability of winning "Don't Look Up" is probably not high. Two weeks after its theater release, Don't Look Up will be open to subscribers on streaming Netflix.
The Broadway masterpiece was re-adapted, and "West End Story" continued the classic
In Steven Spielberg's sequence of works, the West End Story genre is rather rare. The film was starring Ansel Elgot and newcomer Rachel Zegler, who has been cast as the lead actor in the live-action version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It is worth mentioning that Rita Moreno, who played the heroine in the original "West End Story", has also returned. Behind the scenes, West End Story is written by Tony Kushner, the third collaboration with the director after "Munich" and "Lincoln", and the two will continue to work together in next year's "Dream House".
Adapted from a 1957 Classic Broadway musical of the same name, the film tells the story of two major gangs in New York's West End who often fight in the streets, where one gang leader's friend Tony falls in love with Maria, the sister of another gang leader, and the two leaders have a tragic duel.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the release of the original "West End Story". In 1961, "West End Story" was first put on the big screen, not only topped the annual box office with a whirlwind trend, but also swept 10 small gold men, including best picture. In the new version, Spielberg updated the racial depiction of the film that was behind the times to be closer to the appreciation taste of the current audience. At the same time, "West End Story" still uses the classic melody created by Leonard Bernstein and Steven Sondheim, which can be described as a good job in feelings.
As a seed contestant for the awards season, West End Story was named one of the Top Ten Films of the Year by the National Critics Association Awards (NBR) and the American Film Institute (AFI), and was praised to match or even surpass the original film. However, the opening performance of "West End Story" is slightly flat, and the goal of catching up in the later period will be the song and dance films that also appeared at the end of the year holiday. In 2002, Chicago grossed more than $2 million in 77 theaters, then expanded to 2,701 theaters, and finally fixed at $171 million at the box office. A more apt benchmark film is "The King of the Circus": after 3,006 theaters received $8.81 million, "The King of the Circus" has a long-term endurance of $174 million with high word-of-mouth, which is nearly 20 times the number of the first weekend. Considering the big winners such as "Philharmonic City", if "West End Story" can get more judges to affirm, it is not out of reach to get out of the long red curve.
According to comScore, West End Story also appeared in 37 international markets, including France, Germany and Brazil, with a total of $4.4 million. After adding up to North America, "West End Story" had a first-week figure of $14.9 million, which was not as strong as "Full House of Magic" overseas, and ranked second in the global box office list. According to the disclosure, the investment budget of "West End Story" may be close to 100 million US dollars, and even if the release is postponed for one year, it still faces huge pressure to return the cost.
This week, Marvel's blockbuster new "Spider-Man: Homeless Heroes" is poised to compete with Disney's "West End Story" and "Full House of Magic", and the North American film market will become a three-game tournament within Mickey Mouse.
Wen | Chen Yi
Editor| Zhang Youfa