West Side Story sang and danced its way into Thursday night previews and while some are saying this is a slow start, I think the film is preparing for a leggy run during the holiday season.
West Side Story grossed $800,000 in Thursday night previews that began at 5:00 PM at 2,820 locations. The preview gross is identical to the $800,000 made by the musical adaptation of Dear Evan Hansen from 2,700 theaters from showtimes that began at 7:00 PM. The key difference here is that the Steven Spielberg film comes into the weekend with much better reviews (93% fresh versus 30% rotten for Hansen) and the film appeals to a broader audience thanks to the fact that it’s a legacy IP. West Side Story still needs adults who have been afraid to go to the movies during the pandemic to show up this weekend and that’s something we’ll be watching as things play out.
West Side Story is tracking for a $12-17 million opening and since its preview number is above that of Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies ($500,000 before opening to $15.3 million) that seems like the tracking is spot on. I still don’t think Dear Evan Hansen is a good comparison ($7.4 million opening before stalling at $15 million) because West Side Story has a much better pedigree but it will be a test of Spielberg’s box office power. That being said, West Side Story will be about legs in the long run and less about how big the opening is. Its performance throughout December will determine if it’s a winner or not. The best outcome will be a The Greatest Showman performance. That film opened to a mere $13.5 million over five days, was 57% rotten on Rotten Tomatoes but was a huge word of mouth hit during the month of December in 2017 and went on to gross $174.3 million domestically and $435 million worldwide. All done without being based on a popular Broadway IP.
What are YOUR thoughts on West Side Story’s Thursday preview numbers?