Most of the controversy surrounding the Oscars this year is on Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie being snubbed for Best Director and Best Actress nominations. However, one film that isn’t getting much attention is a remake of an Oscar-nominated classic – The Color Purple. This remake is a musical, a lovely detail that was hidden from the masses through its marketing campaign.
Another key detail is that the remake isn’t based on the Steven Spielberg film. It’s based on the musical, which is closer to the books than the 1985 film. Despite the uphill battle of overcoming the shadow of the first movie, The Color Purple has been widely praised by critics and fans, but surprisingly, it was a commercial failure. Even more surprising is that the Broadway adaptation only secured one nomination for Danielle Brooks in the Best Supporting Actress role.
Interestingly, there’s not much uproar about The Color Purple’s lack of success with fans and the Hollywood Foreign Press. Maybe, The Color Purple isn’t as great as the Rotten Tomatoes scores would lead you to believe.
The Advertising Deception
Just like Mean Girls, The Color Purple’s roots from the Broadway musical were not made clear from the advertising campaign. Executives also fooled fans with Wonka, another musical, that film is making bank at the box office. However, Warner Brothers is banking off the IP of the original film that came out in 1985. The Steven Spielberg feature was a hit when it came out in theaters, collecting $95 million (not adjusted for inflation) off a $15 million production budget.
The Whoopi Goldberg feature is considered a classic by many, and the studio was likely counting on the film’s popularity to bring in the old and new generation. The marketing did emphasize a bold new take, but that wasn’t enough to clue people in that this is based on the Broadway hit. That likely backfired when it opened on Christmas Day, as The Color People had a strong 18 million-dollar start. It was the largest Christmas opening for a film since 2009, and the glowing “A” CinemaScore indicated that this would be another hit for Warner Brothers Discovery. Unfortunately, this wouldn’t be the case as The Color Purple hasn’t even come close to reaching its $100 million production tag.
The Controversy Surrounding The Actors And Crew Members Behind the Scenes
The chatter regarding the treatment of the cast and crew started with Taraji P. Henson expressing her displeasure over the production of The Color Purple. Notably, after the amazing results of the film’s impressive opening day numbers, the box office started to dip. It’s a strange case as there wasn’t any backlash over the misleading advertisement. However, there can’t be any denying that musicals don’t particularly do well in the modern age. Unlike Wonka, which is perfect for the Christmas season, The Color Purple is a film that tackles so many serious and grim subjects.
On the flip side, it didn’t help that the cast slowly revealed the backstage treatment during filming. It first starts with pay equality. Then it spiraled into numerous other issues such as food, rooms, and other behind-the-scenes problems you wouldn’t expect for a 100-million-dollar production. Though The Color Purple was critically praised, any good news was drowned out by the negative surrounding the cast’s unfair treatment. Notably, the box office numbers dipped, as can be attributed to the fact that some fans likely didn’t want to support a film that treated their favorite names so poorly behind the scenes.
The Color Purple Oscar Snub
It’s interesting to note that all of the shine has been on Danielle Brooks. Fantasia Barrio was nominated for Best Actress at the Golden Globes, but Brooks has been winning all of the major awards throughout the movie’s campaign. So why was the latest adaptation shut out of the Oscar race? The negative press is a possible reason because it clouded the positive buzz surrounding the film.
Of course, Hollywood is a political animal and it could be that the Hollywood Foreign Press weren’t too pleasured with most of the cast airing their grieves during the campaign. I have nothing to back up this claim as it’s pure speculation, but it’s no secret that politics does play a factor when it comes to awards shows. Citizen Kane was infamously snubbed despite having nine nominations, losing the Best Picture to How Green Was My Valley.
The former is widely considered one of the best films ever made, but it’s heavily rumored that the voters weren’t happy with Orson Welles. Many see Citizen Kane as a shot at William Randolph Hearst, who wasn’t particularly thrilled over how identical he was to Charles Foster Kane. While that’s rumored, the recent drama surrounding the Golden Globes and Emily in Paris opened the floodgates on the politics that often corrupt Tinseltown. Hell, Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple was nominated for eleven Oscars including Best Picture, but he walked out empty-handed.
The Color Purple not even getting a fraction of that Oscar love is a combination of plenty of things. It can also simply be that it just didn’t cut because there are too many great films to choose from. Though we talk about a lot of snubs, there isn’t a film nominated that doesn’t deserve to be on the list. Some other Oscar-worthy movies that didn’t receive any attention are The Iron Claw, BlackBerry, Air, Saltburn, and Priscilla. The Color Purple will go down as one of the best films of 2023 regardless, but the controversy and drama surrounding the Broadway adaptation will overshadow the feature for a good period.
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