{"id":1111734,"date":"2021-12-12T14:13:31","date_gmt":"2021-12-12T19:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1111734"},"modified":"2021-12-12T14:13:34","modified_gmt":"2021-12-12T19:13:34","slug":"ap-admits-steven-spielbergs-west-side-story-debuts-weakly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ap-admits-steven-spielbergs-west-side-story-debuts-weakly\/","title":{"rendered":"AP Admits: Steven Spielberg&#039;s &#039;West Side Story&#039; Debuts Weakly"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fap-admits-steven-spielbergs-west-side-story-debuts-weakly%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1111734&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Despite critical acclaim and two years-worth of anticipation, Steven Spielberg\u2019s lavish \u201cWest Side Story\u201d revival made little noise at the box office, debuting with $10.5 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday \u2014 a worrisome result for a movie industry struggling to recapture its finger-snapping rhythm.<\/p>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Steven Spielberg&#039;s &quot;West Side Story&quot; | Official Trailer | 20th Century Studios\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/A5GJLwWiYSg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>A dazzling widescreen adaptation and Spielberg\u2019s first musical, \u201cWest Side Story\u201d was one of the year\u2019s most eagerly awaited titles. With a script by Tony Kushner and Rita Moreno returning to her breakthrough film 60 years later, the $100-million \u201cWest Side Story\u201d 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\u2019s Academy Awards.<\/p>\n<p>But \u201cWest Side Story\u201d 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\u2019s latest, have been among the slowest to return.<\/p>\n<p>Musicals, too, have struggled to catch on in theaters. Lin-Manuel Miranda\u2019s \u201cIn the Heights\u201d launched with $11 million in June but the Warner Bros. release simultaneously streamed on HBO Max. The critically panned \u201cDear Evan Hanson,\u201d from Universal, debuted with $7.4 million in September.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Steven Spielberg&#039;s &quot;West Side Story&quot; | This Is Our Time | 20th Century Studios\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NstZLMeke4s?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p>But this was Spielberg. If anyone could reignite moviegoing, the thinking went, it was him. Surely, one of the movies\u2019 dazzling craftsmen, a director synonymous with box office, could spark a fuller revival in theaters. \u201cWest Side Story,\u201d too, is among the most beloved musicals. The 1961 film, directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, made $43.7 million (or about $400 million adjusted for inflation) and won 10 Oscars, including best picture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWest Side Story\u201d can still be expected to play well through the lucrative holiday corridor, during which younger-skewing films like \u201cSpider-Man: No Way Home\u201d and \u201cSing 2\u201d will likely be the top draws. Film executives are hoping the spreading omicron variant of COVID-19 doesn\u2019t set the box office back just as Hollywood is nearing its most profitable period.<\/p>\n<p>But the muted reception for \u201cWest Side Story\u201d will concern the industry. Hopes had long been pinned on Spielberg, with his song-and-dance spectacular, to bring back some of the movies\u2019 mojo. Instead, little right now outside of Marvel releases is finding big audiences. Many moviegoers simply haven\u2019t returned yet.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19090762\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" readability=\"32\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/rachel-zegler-center-stars-steven-spielberg-west-story-afp.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-19090762 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/rachel-zegler-center-stars-steven-spielberg-west-story-afp.jpg\" alt=\"AFP\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Rachel Zegler (center) stars in Steven Spielberg\u2019s \u201cWest Side Story.\u201d (AFP Photo)<\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Starring newcomer Rachel Zegler and Ansel Elgort as Maria and Tony, \u201cWest Side Story\u201d took in $4.4 million in 37 overseas territories. Because the film includes a transgender character, it was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/entertainment\/2021\/12\/07\/steven-spielbergs-west-side-story-banned-in-saudi-arabia-kuwait-over-lgbtq-character\/\">banned<\/a> in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait.<\/p>\n<p>David A. Gross, who runs the movie consultancy Franchise Entertainment, called the opening \u201csoft.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf \u2018West Side Story\u2019 is going to be profitable, it will need to connect internationally as well domestically,\u201d Gross said in an email. \u201cSo far, the first European openings have been good, but this is going to be a challenge with moviegoing conditions as difficult as they are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Spielberg\u2019s film was a long time coming. Its release was delayed a year by the pandemic. It was developed at 20th Century Fox, which was acquired by the Walt Disney Co. shortly before production began. Days before its Lincoln Center premiere, the musical\u2019s revered lyricist, Stephen Sondheim, died at the age of 91.<\/p>\n<p>Second place for the weekend went to Disney\u2019s animated \u201cEncanto,\u201d which held strongly in its third week, dropping only 27% from the previous weekend. It grossed $9.6 from Friday to Sunday, bringing its cumulative total to $71.3 million domestically and $80.5 million internationally.<\/p>\n<p>The weekend\u2019s only other new wide release \u2014 STX Films\u2019 college football drama \u201cNational Champions\u201d \u2014 went largely unnoticed, pulling in $300,000 in 1,197 theaters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Despite critical acclaim and two years-worth of anticipation, Steven Spielberg\u2019s lavish \u201cWest Side Story\u201d revival made little noise at the box office, debuting with $10.5 million &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1111734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1111734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1111734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1111734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1111734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}