Steven Spielberg’s version of West Side Story hit movie theaters this weekend with a lackluster result at the box office. Generally speaking, it has been one of the worst weekends for cinemas in 2021, and that is saying something.
Given the expectations on the American classic written by legendary playwright Arthur Laurents, West Side Story was predicted to do fairly well on its opening weekend. The remake of the film that won 10 Oscars in 1961 instead made a modest $4.1 million on Friday, $3.8 million on Saturday, and a weekend total of $10.5 million, according to Deadline. Surprisingly enough, this weekend has been slow for cinemas that the film still came in as the number one box office movie. The Steven Spielberg-directed film was given a theatrical window that, instead of boosting movie ticket sales, has slowed it down. Usually, the weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas are known to be one of the worst in the year as most moviegoers save their ticket money for the big movie blockbusters coming up for the week of Christmas.
In similar circumstances, Licorice Pizza barely made it to $1 million on its third weekend. STX’s football drama National Champion about the cause to compensate student-athletes has the worst per-theater average of any movie since 2008. It grossed just around $300,000 on its debut, according to Rotten Tomatoes. Disney’s Encanto is quickly becoming the highest-grossing animated movie of the pandemic with a solid $9,4 million on its third weekend. Ghostbusters: Afterlife generated $7,1 million this week, bringing its total to $112 million. Sony’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage is still sticking around movie theaters with $1.5 million as fans of the superhero genre anxiously await the third Spider-Man movie that will release next weekend.
Overall, it has been a tough week for cinemas that are expecting the much-anticipated avalanche of moviegoers that will start rolling in this Friday with Spider-Man: No Way Home.
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