The same box-office pundit who sounded the alarm this same time last week about “West Side Story” just making $10 million on opening weekend is telling me things could get worse.
Supposedly, his projections are saying the coming weekend will be disastrous for Spielberg’s film with a 60% drop in earnings. A $4-6 million second weekend awaits “West Side Story,” which has a budget of over $100 million. The film has thus far made just $12 million domestically and isn’t doing any better overseas, having racked up just $14 million internationally.
A lot of people are comparing the tepid box-office for Spielberg’s film to 2017’s “The Greatest Showman,” which opened in early December to an $8 million opening weekend only to get a major boost from word-of-mouth, not to mention its soundtrack topping the music charts. The film ended up racking close to $174 million domestically by the end of its impressive box-office run.
However, even though released just four years ago, I just can’t see the fate of Spielberg’s film being similar to that of Showman’s. The theatrical paradigm has changed with the over-35 crowd unwilling to go back to theaters during the pandemic. Also, West Side Story’s songs (“America,” “Tonight”) ravaging the billboard and iTunes charts the same way Showman’s did is almost a non-certainty.