After months of hype, Steven Spielberg’s remake of the 1961 classic was officially released with critical praise. The original was a critical darling itself, garnering ten Oscar nominations and winning nine of the prestigious trophies. Fans and critics were actually calling Steven Spielberg’s remake better, and with the buzz around West Side Story actually doing being a huge Oscar contender was strong. A play off of Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story is about the developing romance between Tony and Maria and the warring rival gangs for the control of the streets. The good news is that West Side Story emerged victorious as the No. 1 film during the weekend. The bad? Unfortunately, West Side Story only made $10.5 million and given the fact that the Steven Spielberg remake has production costs of $100 million, the film isn’t particularly off to a good start despite getting the number one spot. So, what happened? Steven Spielberg is one of the most respected directors in Hollywood and arguably the king of blockbuster films. Though the cast was mostly filled with unknowns, Spielberg’s name and the strong reception should’ve resulted in an excellent box office start. Let’s dive deeper into the reasoning behind West Side Story’s lackluster opening weekend.
The Ansel Elgort Situation
We can’t talk about West Side Story without addressing the elephant in the room. In June of 2020, Elgort was accused of sexual assault by an ex-girlfriend in 2014. To be clear, the young girl never stated that Elgort raped her. Based on her Twitter statement, the two were having sex, and his then-girlfriend expresses frustration over the actor not stopping when the time was right during the intercourse, “So when it happen instead of asking me if I wanted to stop having sex knowing it was my first time and I was sobbing in pain and I didn’t want to do it the only words that came out of his mouth were ‘we need to break you in’ I WASNT there in that moment mentally,” her tweet read. “I disassociated myself and felt like my mind was gone I was in shock I couldn’t leave I only 5’2 and 98 pounds,” she continued. I’m not going to dive into the situation itself. I’m not a lawyer or a detective nor am I going to pretend that I understand these types of situations. All I’ll say is that Elgort’s name was damaged slightly because of these allegations. Not surprisingly, the situation was brought up again during his campaign run to promote West Side Story. The number of detractors wasn’t huge for a story like this; however, there’s plenty of people who have deemed Elgort guilty and wanted no part of seeing the actor onscreen. Though the internet isn’t always a good tell on certain situations, there’s no denying that the Elgort situation stopped some moviegoers from purchasing a ticket. West Side Story was done filming a year prior to the allegations, so it was too late for the studio to recast the actor. However, Elgort was heavily promoting the film alongside everyone else. Again, I won’t go into speculation mode (despite this being a speculation heavily article) about the situation and the studio’s reaction, but either way, Elgort is deemed guilty in the eyes of many despite him never being accused of rape.
Musicals Have Been Flopping Left and Right
Between the 1930s and 60s is when musicals were all the rage in Hollywood. Classics such as Singin’ In The Rain, Oklahoma!, Guys and Dolls, The Sound of Music, West Side Story, and Funny Girl were made during this time period. As the years past, musicals slowly faded out because they were no longer a hot commodity. Every now and then, a musical would breakthrough in modern times and be a success. The Greatest Showman opened with less than $9 million; however, that film managed to have strong legs in theaters and ended its run by making nearly $440 million worldwide. Considering the fantastic reviews for West Side Story, it’s possible that this could have incredible legs, though the coronavirus is still having a big effect across the country, so the chances of it reaching anywhere close to $440 million worldwide is slim. However, musicals have been a flop in 2021. In The Heights and Dear Evan Hansen were box office duds; Cats was also a big catastrophe as well. No other musical following The Greatest Showman has even come close to reaching the 2017’s box office numbers. Musicals aren’t popular these days. There’s a reason why we don’t get much of them anymore. Steven Spielberg is the guy that made Jaws, Indiana Jones, E.T., and Jurassic Park, thus the director is no stranger to creating box office magic. Yet, his name didn’t matter here because audiences just didn’t care about a film that wasn’t all that popular to begin with.
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