Why Are Studios Hiding Their Musicals?

As 2023 came to a close and we entered the 2024 film season, an interesting trend began to appear in the world of movie marketing. Wonka, an origin tale of the classic Roald Dahl character Willy Wonka starring Timothee Chalamant, had numerous trailers and promotional materials that left out a crucial detail about the film – that it’s a musical. This trend continued with the upcoming film Mean Girls, an adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name based on the 2004 film of the same name, which is being marketed as a remake with a new twist, by hiding the fact that it’s more of an adaptation of the stage musical than a remake of the film. So why is this?

Let’s start with the most obvious motive, “People don’t like musicals. People won’t come out to the theatre for a musical because they straight up don’t enjoy watching them.” This is an interesting point, but we’re unsure if it holds any water when you look at the track record of modern-day musicals. While few modern musicals are critically praised, they typically resonate well with general audiences. The Greatest Showman, the 2017 musical that follows the life story of well-documented not-great guy P.T. Barnum, currently rocks a mediocre 56% on the Tomatometer, while also having an impressive 86% audience score. This movie in particular had pretty great legs too. According to “The-Numbers.com”, a website used to track film financials like box office, budgets, etc, The Greatest Showman lasted an average of 9.6 weeks per theater which denotes that people not only saw the film on its opening weekend, but they came back to see it again, if not it continued to attract new people every week. The year before, Damien Chazelle’s La La Land was not only widely praised by audiences and critics alike, but it was also nominated (and even won for few seconds) for an Academy Award for Best Picture. 

If we look at more recent history, films like Tick, Tick…Boom! and Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story remake, both garnered a ton of praise from critics and general audiences alike. Additionally, both films were nominated for numerous awards showing that these films made some impact and were loved. Films like In The Heights, while not an awards darling, still have an impressive 94% across the Tomatometer and Audience score, and Dear Evan Hansen, a film panned by most critics, sports a solid 88% Audience score. Even Disney’s most recent live-action remake The Little Mermaid boasts a 94% Audience score, showing that these films are liked and enjoyed by the people who see them. Pulling up the 2 most recent musicals released at the end of 2023, Wonka (82% Tomatometer/91% Audience) and The Color Purple (87% Tomatometer/95% Audience), this statement that “People just don’t like musicals” is just false. However, maybe the studios are more worried about how financially viable musicals are instead of how well they will be received.

Using our first example and using “The-Numbers.com”, 2017’s The Greatest Showman grossed about $174 million domestically and $255 million internationally at the box office with a production budget of $84 million. La La Land grossed about the same with $151 million domestically and $284 internationally against a budget of $20 million. Looking at one of the more recent examples, Wonka, which is in its 3rd week as of the time of writing this piece, has grossed roughly $166 million domestically and $303 million internationally with a production budget of about $125 million. With these metrics, it can be inferred that when these films hit, they can make some serious bank for their respected studios. Unfortunately, this is not true for all musicals, especially ones released in the last few years. 

The two critically acclaimed examples used earlier, Tick, Tick…Boom! And West Side Story, while able to collect some awards was unable to make any dent in the box office. Tick, Tick…Boom! had a small, limited theatrical release and was quickly dropped on Netflix only two days later. West Side Story faced an even worse fate, being a major bomb grossing $74 million worldwide, $26 million less than their production budget of $100 million. Dear Evan Hansen and In The Heights both followed suit here and flopped as well. While not a “flop” Disney’s The Little Mermaid underperformed when compared to the previous musical Live-Action remakes Aladdin and Beauty and The Beast, each of which grossed $1 billion worldwide. However, the biggest disaster when it comes to musical bombs has to be the bizarre fever dream that is Tom Hooper’s 2019 adaptation of Cats. This atrocity was panned by critics and general audiences alike and flopped so hard it more resembled a fish than a cat. Essentially, in the last 4 years, most big-budget musicals have turned out to be bad bets for the major studios. 

With this knowledge in mind, it sort of makes sense why studios are hiding the fact that certain films are musicals in their marketing. They understand that people enjoy these films, but it’s hard to pull them into a theatre, especially post-pandemic. Additionally, it seems that general audiences might be afraid to give these films a shot in the first place unless they come from a well-known name or property like Wonka. The Color Purple, billed as a “bold new take on the beloved classic,” seems to also be benefiting from this strategy making a moderate $55 million domestically in its first two weeks. Following both of these, Mean Girls, a musical remake of the beloved 2004 comedy, is also hiding its musical intent in trailers and it will be interesting to see how the film does in the long term. If successful, then there might be more to why studios are avoiding advertising films as musicals.

Maybe the theory is not so much that musicals are a bad bet in the eyes of the studios, but musicals not based on previously established and beloved properties are bad bets. Now Dear Evan Hansen and Cats are based on Broadway plays, but it seems that’s not enough anymore to warrant a runaway financial success. They will be loved by their niche audience, but they more than likely won’t make their budget back. Being an adaptation of a well-known stage musical seems to be less of a draw for general audiences, who seem to prefer the comfort and familiarity that comes with a more well-known film being remade. So why are studios hiding their musicals? Because marketers believe that the word “musical” doesn’t put butts in seats, but nostalgia and providing a familiar experience does. If they market a movie as a “new twist” or “a new take on a classic” that will draw people in more than Wonka: The Musical. They think that if they can convince someone to give the Willy Wonka origin story a shot through a goofy trailer, then it doesn’t even matter if it’s a musical or not, cause they got you in the seat. If Mean Girls (2024) proves to be a huge box-office success, this theory might become reality. Until then, we’ll have to wait and see how this “new twist” turns out.