What is up with all of these movie musicals coming out of nowhere

Okay ever since Chicago receieved the Oscar for Best Picture, development of movie musicals have gone into high speed from Phantom of the Opera, The Producers, Rent, Dreamgirls, High School Musical to the more recent Enchanted, Hairspray, Sweeney Todd, and Mamma Mia, movie musicals are everywhere these days.
Even though some of these movies either don't make much money or aren't done very well one thing is clear: the genre is here to stay. Not that it ever went away, but intrest is high in the genre right now.

Now lets look at the future of the genre:

2008- Repo: The Genetic Opera

2009- Nine
Fame
Follies
and the new disney movie The Princess and the Frog

Future planned musicals with uncertain release dates

2010?- Aida
Jekyll and Hyde
Carousel
Sunset Blvd.
The Color Purple
Footloose
My Fair Lady
Rapunzel (Disney)
The newly reported Hairspray sequel

2011?- Jesus Christ Superstar
Wicked
The newly reported Rocky Horror Picture Show remake

Needless to say Hollywood and America has a lot on their plate for the future.

Thoughts?

Updated On: 7/23/08 at 11:30 PM

that is true

There are dozens of movie musical projects in the works. I wish I could have afforded to upkeep my MovieMusicals.net website.

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Updated On: 5/2/09 at 11:42 PM

This thread is wider than Clay Aiken's vag!!!

edit- not anymore. Why edit Allofmylife??? Why?

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Updated On: 7/24/08 at 11:57 PM

I would say it is more of a revival of a trend that happened decades ago with the success of many Rodgers and Hammerstein Musicals? This really isn't something "new" rather than something re-newed. Theater is very expensive and so many don't look there for entertainment because it has such an image of being, "too elite" for the average joe. So I'm not complaining and I own a good amount of Movie Musicals because I just love listening to many of the songs from the shows. Many of them aren't so badly performed so I'm not complaining about it.

I just object to re-makes of Movie Musicals that usually don't turn out as good as the original ones are. We also are not really, usually, getting Broadway, London or Toronto's best work since they rarely use real professional Actors in these Movies.

I can maybe love the Hollywood production a little bit better when I know Broadway Producers have finally hammered out a fair deal to get their shows on DVD. It will never have the allure that a live performance brings. I can't really see it shutting down Broadway, the way so many fear. Instead it would often boost sales through the roof when those who don't usually bother with a Theater discover what it is they are missing. It also allows those who may never have the chance to go to Broadway to own some amazing performances to watch over and over again.

Now, it is still just a dream and a somewhat profitable black market. I rather see their money going into making the DVD's of Broadway Shows commercially available a reality rather than trying to tape and paste together some Hollywood Actors into an already successful video performance re-make.

Updated On: 7/25/08 at 03:09 AM

I'm pretty sure the Rodgers and Hemmerstein musicals were some time longer than a decade ago.

I would still say that this recent batch of them comming out one after another after another is all thanks to Chicago. A movie musical who won the oscar for best picture and who proved that the genre can be successful in the box office. It got other film producers wanting to see if they could repete the success of Chicago so that is why more and more are made recently then there have been in the past 10 or so years.

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I think it's great to be honest. Yes, they could all be improved a lot without the 'big names' mediocre performances, but on the whole they're boosting the industry, which is awesome for us.

As much as Chicago and Moulin Rouge were successful, I feel that High School Musical is really what has boosted the genre.

All the kids want to go see them, dragging parents/families along. As much as Chicago brought the idea that movie musical adaptations have the potential to be a box office hit...I get the impression that Hairspray and Mamma Mia wouldn't be around without High School Musical.

However, now that musicals are becoming more successful....they're trying different things.

We have the darker ones, Repo! Sweeney Todd, the possible remake of Rocky Horror.

The less known and/or more interesting ideas...such as Color Purple, Aida, Nine etc.

Then there's Wicked, which is probably going to completely redefine the term 'successful movie musical'.

no its not the musical

and musicals are back thanks to Evita, if you read interviews etc about Chicago they said that they only got Chicago of the ground thanks to Evita's success

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Evita wasn't a success.

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Wicked_beast4 I self-edited. It hurt, but it had to be done.

The main reason that there are so many musical projects is the herd mentality of Hollywood Studios. As a working writer/producer, I pitch two or three times a week, on average, to studio development executives and I can tell you, they are one frightened crowd. You have to realize that many of these guys (and yes a few gals) have a gun with about six bullets in it. If they firs off their gun and miss, they still have a few bullets left, but just a few. So they hedge their bets by moving with the crowd.

Every time I see a VPD (vice-president of development) they say "Do you have a comic" as that is all that is seriously getting greenlit these days. And they are a dwindling resource. All the good stuff is taken. I swear to God, they're going to do a movie soon based on the Daisy Air Rifle advertisement cartoons they ran in the back of comics in the 50's... hey, that's a great idea!

So when "Chicago" and "Hairspray" did well, every musical property was suddenly trotted back out again.

Oh well, next year it's be American remakes of Bollywood musicals and... hey, that's a great idea!!!


And Jimi Mistry inherits the earth.

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(Please note, this is for England, but I guess it is relevant in America as well) there was a report the other day saying theatre ticket sales are up 30% in England compared to 10 years ago, and I think these films are a way of pulling people in, they see the big names in the adverts for the films, they go see it for the names, but fall in love with the songs and this makes them want to see it live! It's an easy cycle and it works, it's also a VERY good way for producers etc. to make abit more money from the show, the film will make ALOT of money, and (Depending on there involvement with the show) they will get royalties, and it draws people into the theatre, I think the simple answer to why these movies coming out is just MONEY!

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