As recently as the middle of last week, box office projections for Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story remake were looking fairly solid, if a million miles away from spectacular.
The combination of rave reviews and one of the most famous filmmakers in the business calling the shots had analysts forecasting that the brand new version of the 1961 classic could bring in $18 million domestically and at least $30 million globally by the end of its first weekend in theaters.
Unfortunately, those numbers have turned out to be massively wide of the mark. West Side Story barely scraped past $10 million in the United States by the end of Sunday, and the movie’s overseas performance was even worse. Opening in no less than 37 international markets, the all-singing and all-dancing awards season contender couldn’t even crack $5 million.
That’s not great for a critical darling that comes packing a reported $100 million budget, and it’s got to be viewed as a massive disappointment for all involved that West Wide Story came in over 50% under even the most pessimistic of projections. Adult-orientated fare and musicals have both struggled to gain a commercial foothold during the pandemic, and that sadly looks set to continue for some time to come.