“The Color Purple,” a new musical version of Alice Walker’s iconic novel, seemed to become an instant hit.
Flooded by critical jubilation, the film hit theaters on Christmas Day and sold more than $18 million in tickets, almost a record for the holiday. Audiences gave it an A grade in CinemaScore exit polls. Oprah Winfrey, who produced the film with Steven Spielberg, celebrated on Instagram. “I am overwhelmed with gratitude,” she wrote, adding, “That you all buy tickets, wear purple and show up in droves fills me.”
But the sizzle has become a sizzle.
“The Color Purple,” which cost Warner Bros. at least $90 million to make and another $40 million to market, grossed approximately $4.8 million in 3,218 theaters in the United States and Canada over the weekend. week, according to Comscore, which compiles the box office. data. It was good enough only for seventh place, behind George Clooney’s “The Boys in the Boat,” a period drama that also arrived on Christmas Day, even though “The Boys in the Boat” only had 2,687 theaters.
What happened?
In Hollywood parlance, the film has not expanded beyond a “specialized audience.” To put it more bluntly, “The Color Purple,” enthusiastically received by black moviegoers, needs more white, Hispanic and Asian ticket buyers to give it a chance. The film’s opening weekend audience was 65 percent black, 19 percent white, 8 percent Hispanic and about 5 percent Asian, according to PostTrak, a service that provides studios with demographic information on ticket buyers. .
Warner Bros. hasn’t given up.
“I think the jury will be deliberating for several weeks, as people talk to their friends about the films they have seen and enjoyed, what has moved and uplifted them, and the film continues to be honored by the awards groups,” he said. Jeff Goldstein, president of domestic distribution at Warner.
“What we know about older audiences is that they don’t rush to theaters,” he added.
In total, “The Color Purple” has grossed about $55 million, with advance group sales contributing to the big Christmas Day result. (Movie theaters and studios split ticket sales roughly 50-50.) The film will begin its release abroad on January 18.
In a promising sign for the film’s box office, more white and Hispanic moviegoers turned out in recent days. The film’s demographic breakdown for the second weekend was 47 percent black, 39 percent white, 10 percent Hispanic and less than 4 percent Asian, according to PostTrak data.
As Goldstein said, “The Color Purple,” starring Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks and Colman Domingo, could also benefit from awards attention. Two of the film’s actresses, Barrino and Brooks, have been nominated for awards at Sunday’s Golden Globes. (In what was considered a snub, Globe voters did not nominate “The Color Purple” for best picture, musical or comedy.) Oscar nominations will be announced on January 23.
“The Color Purple” was always seen by box office analysts as a question mark. Winfrey continues to attract enormous attention: When he revealed in mid-December that he had started taking a medication to control his weight, the world seemed to stop spinning, at least for a few seconds. But she doesn’t appear in the movie.
Warner Bros. backed the film with a jubilant marketing campaign that emphasized uplifting images. The film itself begins with a flashy production number featuring at least 40 people wearing their Sunday best and dancing in formation while singing about making a “happy noise.” The ending of the film is also remarkably heartwarming.
But much of the material in between is difficult. The central character, Celie, lives in poverty in rural Georgia in the early decades of the 20th century and must survive repeated rape by a man she believes is her father. He forces her to give up her newborn and then marry a man who brutally beats her and treats her like his servant.
Some box office analysts wonder if the story is tired. Walker’s best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, published in 1982, has already spawned one major film (Spielberg’s 1985 adaptation starring Whoopi Goldberg and Oscar-nominated Winfrey) and two blockbusters. Broadway productions. . Musicals can also be a tough sell, and Warner Bros. currently has two on the market. “Wonka,” starring singer Timothée Chalamet, was No. 1 over the weekend, grossing about $14.4 million for a new domestic total of $165 million ($466 worldwide).
The only new wide-release film, “Night Swim,” a low-budget horror film from Universal Pictures and Blumhouse, came in second, selling about $12 million in tickets.
