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.
It gives me no pleasure to report that this is one of the worst films of Schrader’s career. Wooden acting, Jack Huston and Sofia Boutella are badly miscast, the script is dull, the photography is flat; nothing works.