“Dear Evan Hansen” Bombs at the Box Office: Here’s Why – Deadline

The failure of Universal Dear Evan Hansen at the national box office with a $ 7.5 million the opening really didn’t surprise anyone after the film was ripped apart by critics after its world premiere at TIFF. But the latest dud in an adaptation of a Broadway musical raises many questions about the fate of the subgenre at the box office.

Should Dear Evan Hansen, in its limited appeal, did it debut in streaming rather than in theaters? Or are you going day and date in theaters and streaming?

After all, NBCUniversal Peacock’s streaming service is in desperate need of the product, so much so that they’ve decided to make the sequel to their successful horror reboot, Halloween kills, an attraction day and date Oct. 15 (this film arrived Thursday at an opening of $ 45-50 million, which has left box office analysts perplexed as to how such gross is possible when also available on the premium subscription level of the streaming service).

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But with regard to Dear Evan Hansen, what remains shocking is how a popular and critically-acclaimed musical, which grossed over $ 226 million in its roughly four years on Broadway, is simply thrown off the big screen.

Look, Universal wasn’t doing anything experimental here with Dear Evan Hansen. It wasn’t the backwards version of Gasper Noe or Ari Aster Dear Evan Hansen. Similar to Universal Wretched and Oh mom! franchise (which in total grossed $ 1.45 billion at the WW box office), the studio made the most loyal take Dear Evan Hansen as they could, bringing in Stephen Chbosky, a filmmaker known for his emotional young adult dramas, and launching the project with award-winning actresses like Amy Addams and Julianne Moore, mounting Booksmart star Kaitlyn Dever, and staying true to the roots of the musical by keeping Ben Platt, who was originally and wowed in the title role with his low-to-high emotional vocals.

It was a logical green light, given the momentum of the musical at the time, for Uni to win the auction on the package. Furthermore, Dear Evan Hansen came from producer Marc Platt, with whom the studio has a long-standing relationship (he is also Ben’s father).

So why in the name of God has this musical gone wrong? Why would movie critics avoid a faithfully translated piece of art from the stage?

The most immediate answers on Dear Evan HansenThe downfall of is the simple fact that in a protracted pandemic, those returning to the movies seek escape, not a nearly 2.5-hour scream, especially ballad-filled drama. However, even before the pandemic, a musical with a protagonist who isn’t likable or likeable is a tough sell. Not to mention that a film that touches on suicide must be perfect. Plus, putting this movie on for Christmas probably didn’t make much of a difference. The movie would still have had the same inherent issues. I think Uni knew that, which is why they didn’t screen the film ahead of time for critics before TIFF.

Another pandemic conundrum for Uni is that Broadway musicals are aimed at older audiences, and we know the demographics have a hard time showing up in theaters during the pandemic. Dear Evan Hansen was aimed at young adults, not young adults and parents, so unfortunately Uni loses that last basic audience for the film. The under 35 demo represented 71% of Dear Evan Hansenthe audience of.

While Dear Evan Hansen the fans who showed up gave it an A- CinemaScore, sometimes a musical, like The set, must offer fans of the Broadway musical something more than a rework of what they have already seen on stage.

Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway in concert The set was something no fan of this musical had ever seen, and well worth the price of the movie ticket, not to mention Tom Hooper’s technique of recording the soundtrack live on set, rather than pre-recorded , took the musical to another level. And, right there, that’s probably the nuanced secret to Broadway cooking success on the big screen: Give everyone a little something extra that they haven’t seen, and also make sure they return. the audience at home singing. I would say that Dear Evan Hansen songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul had more hummable and jazzy tunes in the original La La Land with “Another Day of Sun” and “Someone in the Crowd” to send us home with a leap in our approach.

Additionally, what works in New York performs better on the coasts, especially in the Northeast, as we’ve seen with In the heights have its most dynamic ticket sales. Dear Evan Hansen over-indexed in Salt Lake City over the weekend, with five of its top-grossing theaters being in theaters. YA Movies happen to be working in the Utah capital.

In the wake of the revival of musicals on the big screen after the Oscar winner for best film in 2003 Chicago ($ 170.7 million, $ 306.8 million WW), although we’ve seen some big hits from both Broadway adaptations like The set and Oh mama, and completely original price for the big screen, that is to say The greatest showman and La La Land, the point is, musicals remain the riskiest subgenre at the box office from a critical and pure box office perspective.

If you take a look, some of the most popular and lucrative Broadway musicals that have made their way to theaters have been widely criticized by film critics and have not achieved financial success. , that is to say To rent ($ 29M domestic BO, $ 31.7M WW), 2005s The producers ($ 19.4M, WW $ 38M), The Phantom of the Opera (Domestic $ 51.3 million, WW $ 154.6 million), and even pre-Chicago, of the Madonna To avoid ($ 50 million domestic, $ 141 million WW out of a price of $ 55 million before P&A expenses).

Same Chicago director Rob Marshall, himself in his second musical, Nine, given that the star-studded package of Daniel Day Lewis, Fergie, Nicole Kidman, Marion Cottillard, Penelope Cruz and Kate Hudson, could not replicate the success of its Oscar winner for Best Picture, with 39% reviews for Rotten Tomatoes and a final box office of less than over $ 20 million domestic and $ 54 million WW.

Given the family pack of Disney from Marshall’s perspective on that of Stephen Sondheim (the most eccentric of Broadway scribes who doesn’t always spell mass appeal) In the woods, this photo became a WW $ 212.9 million 2014 year-end event. But overall, Broadway is struggling to translate to the national soundtrack.

Universal sold Dear Evan Hansen at Netflix or Amazon, they would certainly have banked and cut their P&A spending even more. But how much sensation or resonance would the film have made? And would it have been worth it to buy talent on the project?

The feature-length version of seven-time Tony nominated Prom went straight to Netflix (after a short, limited theatrical run where the fat ones weren’t reported) with Ryan Murphy directing and a cheated cast that included Meryl Streep, Kerry Washington, Nicole Kidman, James Corden and more. Critically, like most of the musicals mentioned in this piece, Prom was hit on Rotten Tomatoes at 54%. We don’t know anything about its overall audience success, as it hasn’t cracked Netflix’s most watched movies around the world. The tenth and eleventh most viewed titles on this list, Army of the dead and Midnight sky, attracted 72 million WW homes. Is anyone still talking Prom?

Sending in progress Dear Evan Hansen straight to Peacock wouldn’t have raised their eyebrows in such a way that the studio seeks to lure people into the service with a franchise like Halloween kills. Not to mention doing Dear Evan Hansen available immediately on the day and date in theaters and on Peacock would have drastically collapsed the auxiliary windows in the photo, and as we’ve seen with Warner Bros. Scream Macho, Malin, and In the heights, when movies don’t perform at the box office, they are also lackluster on the service.

So at the end of the day, even with a bad ticket sale, Dear Evan HansenThe best place is in theaters and with a theatrical window. And it’s a short to 17 days until PVOD. The film will still qualify for Universal’s lucrative long-term international TV release deals. And because it was a theatrical release, it raises the profile of the film and makes it stand out on any PVOD, streaming menu, heck, even pay-TV cable windows where Universal is granting a. license to its library and continues to make dough (the studio’s live 2022 – action slate and beyond will have its Pay One window with Amazon).

Not to mention, as studios stream titles into their initial window and buy talent from their offerings, this is arguably an inflated price process. The word is that allowing Halloween kills Going day-to-day was easy when it comes to the players participating in this photo: Universal cashed them in like it was already a hit-and-miss hit. With Dear Evan Hansen, already at a low net production cost of $ 27 million, Uni had to cut losses. Why would they pay talent like it’s a blockbuster when they knew Dear Evan Hansen was not going to work?

Said a former studio manager this morning on his suggestion of Dear Evan Hansen: “I would have released the film through Focus, opened it to 1,000 pre-quality screens for all of the aforementioned offerings, and marketed it differently.”