Posted on 12/12/2021 9:13:06 PM PST by Beave Meister
NEW YORK (AP) — Despite critical acclaim and two years-worth of anticipation, Steven Spielberg’s lavish “West Side Story” revival made little noise at the box office, debuting with $10.5 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday — a worrisome result for a movie industry struggling to recapture its finger-snapping rhythm.
A dazzling widescreen adaptation and Spielberg’s first musical, “West Side Story” was one of the year’s most eagerly awaited titles. With a script by Tony Kushner and Rita Moreno returning to her breakthrough film 60 years later, the $100-million “West Side Story” epitomizes a grand-scale prestige film that Hollywood infrequently produces anymore. It hit theaters on a wave of glowing reviews and expectations that it could play a starring role in March’s Academy Awards.
But “West Side Story” faced a challenging marketplace for both adult-driven releases and musicals. Audiences have steadily returned to multiplexes in the second year of the pandemic, but older moviegoers, who made up the bulk of ticket-buyers for Spielberg’s latest, have been among the slowest to return.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
I wish Rita Moreno the best. She is 90 years old, and still very active, but in my opinion, Rita did not need to be in this and her inclusion may have dampened a greater sense of ‘newness’ about this version. Over the summer, I heard more about Rita having a part in this than learning about some of the newer actors.
The television marketing has been terrible. The :30 spots have a “Made for Television Event!” vibe, like other Broadway shows that have been revived for TV, and you can’t tell it’s big-screen until you see the “Only in Theaters” text at the end. The spots give very little idea of the story, and while they use the familiar, iconic title design, there are whole generations who do not recognize it.
Uh, clearly not.
God I hate mainstream "journalists" and their formulaic propaganda.
Spielberg is a great director. Despite his social liberalism, his work has demonstrated a respect for middle class Americans, the core decency, valor, sacrifices and accomplishments of the American military and nation to confront and destroy evil. However he must be bored. There was no need to remake or reinterpret “West Side Story”. It was a masterpiece of its time. A musical with beautiful, evocative music inspired by the perennial themes mastered by Shakespeare in “Romeo and Juliet” adapted to a then contemporary 1950’s New York setting. However that New York setting is long gone. What was Spielberg hoping to show or accomplish? Some things should be left alone and not be subjected to cultural revisionism.
They did it in the sopranos with a whole season was about someone being a homo. The most ffwd season ever!
I just assumed that the only reason to re-make this classic to overlay it with all kinds of woke-ism. Don’t need that. Spielberg’s involvement is a meh.
There’s a trannie character...no such thing in the original and not needed in any movie ever.
When they sing:
“I like to be in A-mer-i-ca
Everything free in A-mer-i-ca”
the audience no longer finds it amusing.
She’s a rabid liberal loon. In a conversation about Trump when she was on Kimmel’s moronic show, she gave him the finger on tv but said he had no class for supposedly telling her the prices of things in his penthouse apartment at a cocktail party (for Gov. Cuomo) once. She also said she was voting for Biden. She’s the typical nutjob liberal, i.e. Trump’s a racist, worse than any horror in history, etc., etc.
Needless to say but I will, I hope the movie continues to bomb!
In my city, we would keep the traffic in the BIPOC - the people of colot. They’re oppressed anyway, so let them lose their chains.
It figures...Almost everyone in Hollywood is a liberal loon....
The original, although dated and with an overly liberal message, nevertheless conveyed a contemporary mindset. The edgy music & choreography (by Jerome Robbins) reflected the angst of that era. While the late 1950s-early 1960s (MADMEN era) was outwardly white and elegant, it had the rumblings of racial tension and juvenile delinquency, all of which erupted in the 1960s.
The Spielberg remake, though apparently well received by the critics, seems to lack that spirit and power. I haven’t seen it yet, but I am very ambivalent. It just sounds too much like a period piece, with the liberal message carried to woke extreme.
No killings, just hurt feelings and people staring at each other.
—
They’ll block each other on social media.
Lesson to be learned: if the original was a great success, don’t try to remake it. Most of the time it won’t be as good and for most it will be a box-office flop.
Well said.
Also, for what it's worth, Disney never expected a super first weekend. First, it's in only about half the number of theaters a mega movie is booked, such as Spiderman, next weekend. Also, movie going between Thanksgiving and Christmas is very weak with the exception of event movies, such as Spiderman, that attracts young males. Disney knows this, of course, which is why they announced last week, they plan on keeping the movie in theaters through February. They are anticipating good word of mouth (Cinemascore of A) and movie going peaks from Christmas Day into the New Year, so they think it will have legs and do just fine in the long run. It is anticipated it will receive a large number of Oscar noms, so that will attract movie goers in February. That is the marketing plan.
This version wasn’t woke.
Way back when I was a kid, my sister had the film soundtrack album. My big brother thought the original was an outrage because New York toughs were dancing around like a bunch of pansies. Later I witnessed the June 1973 Stonewall Inn commemorative parade and was shocked that there really were endless perverted sissies from tough Westside, Bowery, and Bronx neighborhoods.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.