Steven Spielberg’s redo of West Side Story opened this weekend with a modest $10.5M at the box office. The adaptation is Hollywood legend Spielberg’s first introduction to the class, who has previously stated that adjusting West Side Story has been a desire since youth. Spielberg has even updated and adjusted various parts of the new film, most outstandingly in its representation of the Puerto Rican people group, the Sharks, by choosing to reposition the characters as young fellows shielding their local area from xenophobic threats.
As audiences took to theaters this weekend, uncovered that Spielberg’s West Side Story opened at the box office with a small $10.5M across Friday and Saturday, including previews. Despite its $100M+ creation financial plan, star-studded cast, and Academy Award-winning chief at its steerage, the performance comes in opposition to starting projections that West Side Story could amass $31M on its opening weekend.
The performance of West Side Story is equivalent to that of another musical released in 2021, In the Heights, from chief Jon M. Chu and music from Alex Lacamoire, Bill Sherman, and Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda. It also was widely praised, yet many looked to the simultaneous release of the film in cinemas and on HBO Max as the cause for its low box office turnout of just $11.5M. The simultaneous release of many new movies in theaters and on streaming platforms have been seen across the entertainment world since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and has uncovered a shift in the customary theatrical release window.
However, Spielberg’s film is a solely theatrical release, so another conclusion is required. Given its positive reviews, it as of now triumphs over 2019’s vacation season musical, Cats, which was universally ridiculed and mostly recalled not so much for its musical numbers, but rather for its abnormal advanced interpretation of human cat-individuals.