The Box Office

[Kirby101]

1941 grossed $90+ million and was a hit film , long after thoughts it bombed. Why its become more known (a blu ray edition now and considered a cult film) is due to the behind the scenes issues with it. Spielberg had 2 and half hour cut of the film he wanted released. The studio came in and cut the film to 2 hours. The review screening was terrible , they called Spielberg back who re-edited the 1st 45 minutes of the film to help it.


The blu ray added over 40+ minutes to the film.

Okay, thanks. Of course for Spielberg that isn't great, considering it came right after Close Encounters and right before Raiders and ET. Empire of the Sun made $66 million on a $38 million budget, so that not a bomb, but not a hit either. With it's #100 million budget, I can't see WSS making money.

[inisideguy]

It needed Hugh Jackman.

I mean there are a few musicals that have done well over the last decade. But heck even the ones that have done well worldwide haven't done super great in the states. Mama Mia, Les Miserables, The greatest showman. All about 150 million or so at the box office in the states. But lets be real, if you released any of these right now they would bomb to. This has got to be really frustrating for filmmakers. Maybe if they did a Hamilton movie? I don't know.

[D.Z]

Another woke bomb.

[thwhtGuardian]

Another woke bomb.

I'll take, "wrong answers" for $1,000, Alex

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Another woke bomb.

I'll take, "wrong answers" for $1,000, Alex

I weirdly have seen people claim this like they did for The Last Duel. But in both cases , the stories (or prior movies) were there in the case of what we see. In The Last Duel the story of the possible assault is a 600+ year old story. Its based on a true story and legend passed through the years. Yelling woke at that is beyond silly. Like with this musical. The previous film is like 50+ years old and had the same themes comically.

We get the fact that saying woke and broke is some big deal to many. But a lot of times like these...it makes no sense.

The fact this film was started and done by 2019 details the fact it was held by Disney due to the following factors...

- One they knew it was likely not gonna make back its $100+ million budget and was a bomb due the long list handed to them like Dark Phoenix , New Mutants , Ad Astra etc.

- Two , the pandemic was gonna make it a film that really would be hard pressed to earn back anything.

Also as far as throwing it on streaming platform before this ...Disney likely struggled with the whole...how do we sell this film to Disney+ subscribers to pay money at home to watch it ? This isn't Jungle Cruise or Black Widow. Its a musical and the Disney audience that watched High School Musical or Glee in 2000s are now older and likely not gonna pay for this type of film.


So Disney was like...f---k it , we gotta make something from this. And its not like Disney took a loss on this one. This was a Fox film they paid for.

[Username taken]

The guys attacking "woke" movies not doing well are certainly an odd bunch.

We had guys jumping and down screaming about how Shang-Chi was a bomb when it was in fact a hit and is getting a sequel (Simu Liu even trolled some of the guys claiming this). They also attacked Black Widow but the movie was a hit too (and would have made far more if not for the day and date streaming release). Bond was attacked and is already near $800m WW, heck even Eternals is very close to crossing $400 million (which isn't far behind the $432 million that Shang-Chi made).

I'm not sure why those movies were even targeted by the anti-woke crowd considering Shang-Chi is well...Shang-Chi and Black Widow is a character that was introduced into the MCU over 10 years ago and has existed in the comics for decades. It's a very strange phenomenon, it's like some people have deliberately created a different reality and decided to live in it while completely ignoring everything around them.

[inisideguy]

The guys attacking "woke" movies not doing well are certainly an odd bunch.

We had guys jumping and down screaming about how Shang-Chi was a bomb when it was in fact a hit and is getting a sequel (Simu Liu even trolled some of the guys claiming this). They also attacked Black Widow but the movie was a hit too (and would have made far more if not for the day and date streaming release). Bond was attacked and is already near $800m WW, heck even Eternals is very close to crossing $400 million (which isn't far behind the $432 million that Shang-Chi made).

I'm not sure why those movies were even targeted by the anti-woke crowd considering Shang-Chi is well...Shang-Chi and Black Widow is a character that was introduced into the MCU over 10 years ago and has existed in the comics for decades. It's a very strange phenomenon, it's like some people have deliberately created a different reality and decided to live in it while completely ignoring everything around them.

They are just trolls. They basically claim every movie is woke. Thats all they do.

[Kirby101]

If a white guy hero isn't fighting a non-white villain, it's woke, evidently.

[inisideguy]

If a white guy hero isn't fighting a non-white villain, it's woke, evidently.

Lets be honest. These people would have said Star Trek in the 60s was woke. Anything that is different than what they perceive society to be in their own small minds, is woke.

[The Kid]

Another woke bomb.

I'll bite on the troll. How is West Side Story 'woke'? It's a remake of a 60 year old film. The interracial relationship has always been part of the storyline and is this where the 'anti-SJW' side is? Calling an interracial relationship 'woke'

[Wildling]

While fretting about West Side Story (I'll try to watch if the teeming Spidey millions, Sing 2 etc. don't push it out of every theater soon) I have to give kudos to House of Gucci for being expected to pass 100 million worldwide soon. That might not be great for that movie specifically (reported budget is 75 million) but at least it shows live movies not within a well known franchise or not cooking themselves across released media for years are not currently doomed to debut with 5 million and crawl to 20 million worldwide.

Heck the only movie I remember passing 100 million dollars like that this year was Wrath of Man, and that at least sold you you'd see Jason Statham gunning baddies down. I hope Marry Me can pull the trick next in February just like JLo's Hustlers did before.

[Wildling]

Speaking of Terminator franchise...don't you just wish that people could have stopped the last 4 Terminator films from ever being made. T2 was a beautiful great end. Should have never done anymore. Each one seemed to get worse...and worse.....and worse.

I don't blame anyone thinking T2 should have been the end since I initially felt the third movie was a joke and The Matrix's shock to the system release made them obsolete. But I liked at the time seeing Bale in a Terminator future (and was called crazy for saying it out loud) while I thought Dark Fate was a good action movie as long as we accepted it was a diverted timeline adventure.

Just saying because I want to believe I can like new Matrix out soon more than when I watched its sequels (or Star Wars sequels for that matter) at the time.

[numberthirty]

I heard the short-lived the Sarah Connors chronicles series was pretty good, but i skipped it when it aired and i think now its in rights limbo or something.

Perhaps a new streaming series would be the best option for the franchise at this point, assuming they refuse to let it die.

FWIW i thought the last one was decent, at least the first two acts... i can't recall how it ended and whether i thought it stuck the landing though lol. But it did feel like an improvement over the previous post T2 films, to me anyhow.

Might just be the most underrated episodic television ever.

[Frobisher]

I'll bite on the troll. How is West Side Story 'woke'? It's a remake of a 60 year old film. The interracial relationship has always been part of the storyline and is this where the 'anti-SJW' side is? Calling an interracial relationship 'woke'

Having non-white characters is "political" now for some people. Existing outside of the hegemony is a political act.

[Castle]

I love Spielberg, however when I heard he was remaking a west side story film, I felt it was never going to be a hit.

West Side story is a story that just belongs in the past even with a good technical remake like Spielberg seems to have done, but who knows, the movie may become a sleeper hit.

However hats of to Spielberg for proving again why he is arguably the most beloved and celebrated film maker of his generation.