2021 Brought Back Big Budget Movie Musicals, So Why Didn’t Audiences Care?

A year in which West Side Story, In The Heights, Dear Evan Hansen, and tick, tick… BOOM! all got major film adaptations feels like a year that should be declared “the year of the movie musical.” And in some ways, 2021 is the year of the movie musical, for all of the above titles and then some. (Annette, Cinderella, and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, just to name a few more.) Yet it’s unlikely you’ll see any Entertainment Weekly headlines defining 2021 by the song-and-dance numbers audiences loved. Why? Because simply not enough people seemed to care.

It wouldn’t be right to say that no one cared, of course. Critics, certainly, seemed more than happy to get on board with the trend. With the glaring exception of Dear Evan Hansen—which was gleefully panned by nearly every prominent critic that saw it and then predictably bombed at the box office—the majority of the reviews for 2021’s musicals were positive, if not downright glowing. Multiple outlets (including yours truly) declared Jon M. Chu’s In The Heights the movie event of the summer, if not the movie of the year. Despite early critical skepticism, Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story was called “fabulous” and “a classic” and “bold, surprising and new.” Even Lin-Manuel Miranda’s take on tick, tick… BOOM!—which has never come close to the same acclaim as Jonathan Larson’s other show, RENT—was received positively by critics, and joyously by fans.

The numbers on the financial side tell a different story. In The Heights fell short of its $20 million opening weekend projections, bringing in $11.4 million on opening weekend instead. West Side Story fared even worse, taking home about $10.5 million its opening weekend, rather than its projected $14 million. As for tick, tick… BOOM!, which had a limited one-week theatrical run before releasing on Netflix, it’s harder to measure success. Netflix infamously does not release streaming data for all of its films, but, tellingly, tick, tick… BOOM! never appeared on any of Netflix’s own top 10 trending films lists.

Some argue it’s pointless to analyze box office data from 2021. Much like 2020, this was a highly unusual movie-going year thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. While vaccines became widely available, nervousness about gathering in theaters remained, especially during the surges of variants like Delta and Omicron. More than that, many audiences knew they wouldn’t have to wait long—or indeed, at all—in order to watch movies at home, as studios shortened theatrical windows or opted for day-and-date streaming releases. In The Heights, for instance, was available to stream on HBO Max the same day it opened in theaters. (As was the entire 2021 Warner Bros. movie slate.)

But other WB films that streamed on HBO Max the same day as opening in theaters prevailed—Godzilla vs. Kong, Dune, and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It all made decent profits at the box office, considering the circumstances. Like Netflix, Warner Bros. doesn’t release streaming data, so it’s hard to say how successful In The Heights was on HBO Max. However, in an interview with Associated Press in June, the head WB domestic distribution Jeff Goldstein hinted that the musical performed similarly on streaming as it did in theaters. “Our experience, which is backed up on In the Heights, is that if the movie hits a high level in theaters, it hits a high level on the service,” said Goldstein. “If it hits a low level in theaters, it hits a low level on HBO Max. They’re really very comparable.”

West Side Story doesn’t have the streaming excuse, but could also pick up steam over the holiday season, thanks to the glowing reviews. Box office analysts have pointed to the example of 2017’s The Greatest Showman, which appeared to flop on its opening weekend but slowly gained word-of-mouth steam, eventually taking home $171 million at the domestic box office, and $436 million worldwide. Others have highlighted the fact that, other than Spielberg himself, West Side Story doesn’t boast any major stars in its cast. In the Heights, also, didn’t feature A-listers. But this theory doesn’t quite explain tick, tick… BOOM!‘s lack of impact, which starred former Spider-Man Andrew Garfield front and center.

As depressing as it may be for musical lovers to admit—and that most definitely includes this reporter—it was a hard-knock life for movie musicals this year. Maybe we can blame marketing. Disney’s campaign for West Side Story was at least partially hampered by sexual assault allegations against star Ansel Elgort. Or maybe we can chalk it up to rotten timing. Omicron cases are on the rise. COVID-19 poses a greater risk to older folks, and that’s a core audience for musicals, especially classics like West Side Story. Before the pandemic, movies like La La Land, Into The Woods, Mamma Mia 2, and A Star Is Born all did quite well at the box office. And during the first year of the pandemic, the filmed stage show of Hamilton was one of Disney+’s most successful streaming films.

Still, once upon a time, huge, spectacle musicals were the backbone of Hollywood. This year offered a chance to not quite return to the glory days, but at least get a taste of them. And yet, for now, movie-going audiences prefer monster fights and demonic possession over orchestrations and showstopping numbers. I for one, hope Hollywood doesn’t give up hope. Tomorrow is another day.

Where to watch In The Heights