Yet again - Is the Movie Musical Dead?

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 5:33pm

The less-than-stellar box office performances of three godawful movie musicals this year - DE-LOVELY, BEYOND THE SEA, and PHANTOM OF THE OPERA make me feel that CHICAGO may turn out to be a brilliant one-off that cannot and will not be chanced again.

Yes, there is THE PRODUCERS on tap...but I think its filming scheduling may be very up in the air for the time being, and we'll see what happens with ASPHALT BEACH. But with these three bombs (and I don't forseee PHANTOM having any legs in the next few weeks) I think studios will be increasingly skittish to green-light any of the proposed film musicals that everybody is so potentially excited by. CHICAGO had novelty, a juicy story, (heterosexual) sex and violence and three Hollywood star turns to ignite public interest. As heretical as it may seem to say this, the movie might concievably been just as sucessful if it was done as a non-musical re-make of ROXIE HART.


And for the record, let me be the first to point out that Kevin Spacey ripped off the entire structure of BEYOND THE SEA from the forgotten 1953 Eva Tanguay bio-pic THE 'I DON'T CARE' GIRL (which starred Mitzi Gaynor).

Updated On: 12/28/04 at 05:33 PM

[MaTakeALookAtMe]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 5:35pm

Even at the heighth of the movie musical popularity, there were some bombs, right?

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 5:38pm

i think the problem with POTO is that either you like it or you don't. by this, i mean the SCORE. most people (educated ppl) know the basic story of the phantom. when they see this movie, they need to be wowed - they need to see something they haven't seen before.

personally, i think (and hope) the producers can do this.

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 5:44pm

Yes, but I'm scurious if we don't see some kind of replay of what happened in 1930, when after a glut of bomb musicals, the Hollywood studios decreed that they were box office poison. Whatever musicals were in production were mostly shorn of the music and released as comedies instead. It wasn't until 1933 that film musicals got the boost they needed with Warner Bros. 42 ST.

And later bomb musicals from the '30s and '40s were absorbed by the studio system, like any other failed product.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 5:46pm

just for clarification - are you talking about movie musicals in general, are those made from a staged show (like POTO)...b/c 42nd Street the movie (obvioulsy) came first...

i think they will always be made, etc. etc.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 5:52pm

I don't think it will be the critics that decide if the musical movies are successful or not. What are the box office numbers for POTO like? If they're big, which I expect they are, then it really doesn't matter whether or not it is a critical success.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 5:53pm

it was in the top 5, around 3 or 4 i think...

[jjdude2000]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 5:55pm

# 10

imdb.com

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 5:56pm

oh, stupid access hollywood...maybe that was for grosses for the week

[jjdude2000]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 5:59pm

I wanted it to do better...

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 6:00pm

i think meet the fockers was at number 1 - ya, and ocean's 12 was at number 5 (which was SUCH A FUNNY movie)

[LoringsGuy]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 6:13pm

Keep in mind that POTO is still only in limited release...the real test will be when it opens wide in the coming weeks. Calling it a "bomb" is premature.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 6:14pm

Agreed

[nodaybuttoday4]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 6:14pm

I don't think it is dead at all. I mean, Phantom of the Opera wasn't a flop. Beyond the Sea and De-Lovely are movie-musicals, but they are a completely different genre. Just because some people think that "Phantom of the Opera" is "crap-tastic" it is doing quite good in the box office. Besides, its not stopping producers, since we can look forward to "Rent" and "Bat Boy," and like you said, "The Producers." "Asphalt Beach" is another one, although it will be originally coming out in the movie, much like "Moulin Rouge." I don't think people would be so willing if the movie musical was "dead."

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 6:25pm

If Jesus Christ Superstar & A Chorus Line didn't kill the genre, it is indestructable

[nodaybuttoday4]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 6:27pm

Well, it really depends of the version of JCS you see. One sucks, the other is pretty good. The Chorus Line movie is good in its own respect. I mean, it and the musical should be separated a bit, but its great for getting people started on musicals.

[OtherDaryl]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 6:56pm

Danger, Will Robinson, Flash about to occur:

In exactly WHAT respect is "A Chorus Line - The Movie" good? It is the epitome of a bad movie musical, regardless of one's feelings for the original stage production. Attenborough frames the dancers ineptly (and I saw it on a really large screen way before it was panned and scanned for television) and at one point in At The Ballet pans to a blank screen for like 10 full seconds.

In casting a movie star as Zach, the leading man, a choreographer, doesn't dance or even move in an interesting fashion.

The Movie Musical - Three of the best, most successful Broadway productions of the 70's were handed off to great film directors and crashed and burned - The Wiz (Sidney Lumet deserves the Honorary Oscar he's getting, but not for this), Annie (John Huston specialized in adaptations, but Annie was a disaster) and Attenborough, great as he was with Ghandi just couldn't translate it well.

What succeeded with Chicago succeeded because Rob Marshall understood the musical and glorified it with great skill. There was little original film-making here, but it wasn't necessary to reinvent the wheel.

For my money, Alan Parker succeed much better with the adaptation of Evita and has a track record with musicals unrivaled by a living filmmaker in our time - The Wall, Bugsy Malone and Fame.

[Jwaa]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 7:04pm

Whatever happens i just know I will LOVE 'Asphalt Beach'....im sorry but Kristin Chenoweth with Andrew Lippa.....its gonna be a top hit in my book...it is already!!!

[Auggie27]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 7:33pm

The film of CHORUS LINE was probably an industry low for filmed versions of musical plays. Nothing that made the stage show work was rethought or translated with any creativity or intelligence or wit (witness but one glaring example -- 'what I did for love' becomming a romantic ballad between two insufferable people, not a paean to passion about dance. Anyone who thought that song could or should be rethought with any other meaning should've been kept miles from the project.)

[nodaybuttoday4]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 8:42pm

Oh my. I didn't know that my love for Chorus Line would add a crack in both of yours' abnormal and unproportional egos. There is no good or bad, all is dealing with opinion. I think you are just going to have to cope with the fact that some people in this world appreciate the hard work people put in to make movies like the Chorus Line. Perhaps some people have grown up singing the classic tunes with their piano and watching the movie bright-eyed and entranced. If you have not yet found a comfortable state and have not yet calmed down, I highly recommend a place called "anger management," where we learn to appreciate other people's points of view and to absorb the world around us with unbiased eyes.

[uncageg]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 10:03pm

According to the website, POTO is already playing in close to 200 select cities. How many more have to be added to make it do well? Maybe after the holidays it will pick up. Everyone I know went to see Meet the Fockers.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 10:24pm

How can the movie musical be dead when only 2 real movie musicals have openened since this new "age of movie musicals." BEYOND THE SEA hasn't even really opened yet, and DE-LOVELY was awful. Both aren't even real movie musicals, so I believe your use of those movies as an example isn't relevant. Even if they could be considered movie musicals, one hasn't even really opened yet. Make that two - PHANTOM and BEYOND THE SEA haven't really opened yet. And comparing PHANTOM of CHICAGO, they appeal to completely different people. Regular movie goers were attracted initially to chicago, if not for the show itself, for the great buzz surrounding it and the amazing cast, not to mention the sudden interest in the idea that movie musicals could make a comeback. THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA doesn't appeal to everything, as is dismised by many non-theatre fans as boring or just "opera." I know for a fact that many people think it's "boring" or "gay" when they probably haven't even heard one song or seen one scene about it. I know people that think like that, and it's sad. There's no way PHANTOM will have the box office power that CHICAGO had, but we'll discuss that when it opens nationwide. To even ask if movie musicals are dead because of 2 non-musical movie flops, and some negative buzz surrounding one movie, I don't think you really need to ask this question. With a handfull of movie musicals lined up, they are anything but dead.

Posted: 12/28/04 at 10:26pm

the movie musical is not over AT ALL. I know Dreamworks has plans to make several musicals in the future including the remake of Bye Bye Birdie and an original show called Moxie

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 10:33pm

I never understood the logic behind opening up so many movies in so short a time. Peoples time & budgets are limited during the holidays. Too many movies vying for a finite amount of dollars & customers

[felineofavenueb]

Posted: 12/28/04 at 10:51pm

Clearly I'm in the minority, but I thought De-Lovely was fantastic. Also, it wasn't ever intended to be a movie musical. It was a movie with music set to punctuate events in Cole Porter's life, there was never an intention of it being a straight up musical.

I have to say that saying the movie musical is dead on the basis of POTO (which I'm not qualified to comment on, as I haven't seen it) and De Lovely (see above) is a little premature. There are enough slated for release in the next two years to suggest that clearly, the interest is there and there are people ready and willing to put in the time and money for it. Not to mention, you have to consider how different the modern movie musical is from its classic counterpoint to which its being compared. If we're looking for stuff like they had in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, it won't happen again because movies in general are different.