20th Century Studios’ “West Side Story” is off to a slow start at the domestic box office, grossing $4.1 million on its opening day.
20th Century Studios’ “West Side Story” is off to a slow start at the domestic box office. Steven Spielberg’s movie musical grossed $4.1 million across 2,820 locations on Friday. Though “West Side Story” had a quiet debut on Thursday evening, collecting just $800,000 in previews, box office analysts were still sticking with original expectations for the film to bring in $10 to $15 million over its opening weekend. Now, it seems that the numbers will likely fall near the floor of that estimate, if even within them. While an opening around $10 million wouldn’t spell out-and-out doom for “West Side Story,” it must not feel like an auspicious first step for its production companies Amblin Entertainment and TSG Entertainment. Spielberg’s musical cost $100 million to produce and even more to promote, a hefty budget that the release will now hope to match by drawing international audiences and putting up impressive holds over the holiday season. A respectable box office performance over the next few weeks is certainly within the realm of possibility for the musical. The film has conjured glowing reviews, with Variety‘s Owen Gleiberman writing that “there are scenes in Spielberg’s version that will melt you, scenes that will make your pulse race and scenes where you simply sit back and revel in the big-spirited grandeur of it all.
