3 Unfortunate Implications from the Box Office Failure of West Side Story and Other Awards Movies
Warning: This article references allegations of sexual assault and domestic violence.
Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of West Side Story remains one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2021, but its underwhelming box office results were surprising, even during COVID-19 and the continuing cultural dominance of Marvel Studios. Among the speculations that box office pundits have for the film’s failure, here are three unfortunate takeaways I decipher from it, the reasons of which linger today and have prevented other prestigious and original films from financially prospering. (Steven Spielberg’s 2022 effort The Fabelmans has, yet again, flopped despite soaring praise and accolades.)
1. The stigma surrounding “Oscar bait” is real.
Among some reasons moviegoers — often those complaining about Hollywood’s alleged lack of creativity — only go out to theaters for blockbusters over adult-oriented fare, the fact that even a diverse musical film adapted for the cultural zeitgeist failed is astounding. I attribute this and the failure of other films like The Last Duel, Tár, and the LGBTQ-centered rom-com Bros to the stigma surrounding “Oscar bait” cinema. The term is legitimate, and not all prestigious drama films are good, but the term has been reappropriated to the point it has lost all meaning (much like “comic book movie,” “plot hole,” and “underrated”).
2. Many moviegoers only care about representation in blockbusters.
Moviegoers aren’t monolithic, but there are legitimate cases for why they and the cultural zeitgeist should only sometimes be taken at face value, for the cultural zeitgeist is rapidly shifting and inconsistent.
Moviegoers who are active on social media and champion diversity, whether it’d be in artistic films like Moonlight or blockbuster fare where people of diverse groups and ages can see themselves, aren’t showing up for movies like West Side Story and the examples above, which perpetuates the erasure of representation and non-blockbuster films.
The implication I have from the fact that the four-to-five Marvel films continue to outgross hundreds of other movies like West Side Story is not that moviegoers don’t want representation; they desire safe representation in blockbusters attached to brands like Disney and Marvel. Ariana DeBose’s performance in West Side Story led to her becoming the first Afro-Latina and LGBTQ woman of color to win an Academy Award, which makes the film’s release all the more bittersweet given that moviegoers preferred Spider-Man: No Way Home.
All the more ironic is despite the discussion over films needing to be less centric around white male leads to succeed, the highest-grossing films of 2021 and 2022 — Spider-Man: No Way Home, Top Gun: Maverick, and Avatar: The Way of Water — are all directed by and starring white men.
3. Audiences are inconsistent about boycotting problematic actors and filmmakers.
One possible factor in the failure of West Side Story is allegations of sexual assault and misconduct against the film’s lead actor Ansel Elgort. They are severe and must be dealt with, but they only became widely known during production in June 2020.
This was likely out of Steven Spielberg’s control unless he, 20th Century Studios, and Disney overhauled production and recast Elgort, which may have jeopardized production during a fragile state for Hollywood due to COVID-19. In a better reality, the filmmakers would’ve recast Elgort, but since this never transpired, we will never know how different the film’s outcome would’ve been (COVID-19 notwithstanding).
West Side Story was a worthy update of a classic play and film, albeit damaged goods, that likely deserved to succeed at the box office despite the presence of Ansel Elgort. It is perplexing how many moviegoers will take a moral high ground by favoring blockbusters over original and prestigious films with diverse leads and stories, even if their favorite franchises involve problematic actors and directors.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has involved multiple actors implicated in domestic violence and misconduct: Stan Lee, William Hurt, Jeremy Renner, Michael Douglas, Josh Brolin, Christian Bale, and Bill Murray. Where is the outrage over this?
