An acclaimed box office bomb finally finds an audience on streaming

While the theatrical industry is most definitely in a state of recovery, big budget blockbusters have pretty much been the sole beneficiaries, with movies geared towards older audiences, or those that don’t feature effects-driven action sequences, still struggling to gain a foothold.

One of the most notable examples to come along during the pandemic was Jon M. Chu’s In the Heights, which saw Quiara Alegría Hudes script the big screen adaptation of the smash hit musical she’d co-created with Lin-Manuel Miranda. As West Side Story definitively proved last month, critical acclaim isn’t enough to prevent a great film from bombing hard at the box office.

Of course, the fact In the Heights hit HBO Max the same day it landed on the big screen didn’t help, even if Rotten Tomatoes scores of 94% from both critics and audiences would paint a picture of one of 2021’s very best features. In the end, the lavish song-and-dance extravaganza didn’t come close to recouping the $55 million budget at the box office, but it’s finally finding an audience on streaming.

As per FlixPatrol, In the Heights jumped ten places on the HBO Max most-watched list overnight, so a lot of subscribers have been indulging their musical preferences over the weekend.