NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Despite critical acclaim and two years worth of anticipation, Steven Spielberg’s lavish “West Side Story” revival made little noise at the box office.
According to studio estimates on Sunday it debuted with $10.5 million in ticket sales.
The muted reception for a $100 million song-and-dance spectacular is a worrisome result for a movie industry struggling to recapture its finger-snapping rhythm.
“West Side Story” hit theaters on a wave of glowing reviews and expectations that it could play a starring role in March’s Academy Awards.
But “West Side Story” has faced a challenging marketplace for both adult-driven releases and musicals.
Audiences have steadily returned to multiplexes in the second year of the pandemic, but older moviegoers have been among the slowest to return.