Box Office: West Side Story makes an underwhelming debut

Steven Spielberg’s much-hyped West Side Story had a disappointing start at the box office this weekend, opening to a mere $10.5 million, a disastrous number for a movie that cost $100 million-plus. In addition, the opening was below the mediocre $11.5 million opening for In The Heights, which was also showing on HBO Max at the time, making the theatrical-only release for Spielberg’s much-anticipated remake seem like a bust.

That said, before we call West Side Story a flop, it has a few elements working in its favour. For one, the film is getting raves from critics and seems a sure-fire Oscar contender, which typically adds millions to the box office take when all is said and done. It’s also sure to perform well with family audiences over the holiday season, with many saying its box office performance is a marathon and not a sprint. The Greatest Showman opened with a poor $8.8 million over the holidays back in 2017, eventually made $171 million, so the tale isn’t told yet as far as West Side Story goes. However, I imagine Disney and 20th Century Studios are concerned with its under-performance.

Indeed, the impact of COVID-19 is still being felt at the box office in a big way. Despite the poor opening, West Side Story topped the box office, which was anemic. Disney’s Encanto was number two, with $9.42 million, with it legging out to a $71.3 million total, with a $100 million finish well in site. Sony’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife has continued to perform exceptionally well, with the $7.1 million weekend a solid hold, and it’s already grossed $112 million. It seems likely to play well over the packed holiday season, making this another box office win for Sony, whose Venom: Let There Be Carnage is still in the top-10 and the top grossing film (domestically) of the pandemic so far.

House of Gucci is also doing quite well for an adult-skewing movie. Lady Gaga deserves a lot of credit for pulling in a younger audience than a movie like this would traditionally appeal to, with it grossing just over $4 million this weekend for a $41 million total. A $50 million end seems well within sight, and a movie like this always does exceptionally well on VOD/streaming. Marvel’s Eternals rounded out the top 5 with a $3.1 million finish for a $161.2 million finish. While those sound like mediocre numbers for a Marvel movie, it’s still the fifth highest-grossing movie of the year so far and has just passed No Time to Die and A Quiet Place Part 2 domestically.

Meanwhile, Sony’s hoped-for franchise reboot, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, only eked out a sixth-place finish with $1.65 million. As a result, the film seems unlikely to even pass the $20 million total mark at this point.

Of course, the box office is set to receive a super-charged infusion next weekend with the long-awaited debut of Spider-Man: No Way Home. That movie will likely have the biggest box office opening of the pandemic, and the weeks that follow see the release of Disney’s The King’s Man, WB’s The Matrix Resurrections and more. Whether or not those hoped-for hits give West Side Story a boost remains to be seen, although to be sure, this is a poor box office start for a movie everyone hoped would be a smash.