By Chad W. Shreeves

For fans of the musical and musical adaptation genre, it’s almost unfathomable that we’re getting not just one, but three different musicals over the next month. It’s a great time. But fans have also noticed a problem with the marketing of all three of these films…

They don’t have any of the music. And it’s left some to wonder…why? Wonka is utilizing an entirely original soundtrack, whereas The Color Purple and Mean Girls are both based on their award winning Broadway productions. And sure, we see plenty of dancing and choreography in the trailers for all these, but outside of a voiceover of the song in The Color Purple and a brief moment of star Renee Rapp singing “My Name Is Regina George” we don’t even get a sense of the music of any of these that are a huge selling point of the films.

Historical Context

To understand why, we need to go back to 2016. There are two films wildly credited with the modern resurgence of the movie musical. Sure, it’s been a popular genre just about as old as the medium itself; but for a while it was starting to slide backward into a more niche subgenre.

The first big release to look at is La La Land. While this Damian Chezelle musical drama didn’t bring in a ton of cash, for a small budget ($30 Million), independent movie to break free of the constraints that normally hold it in to get to $151 million domestically and a whopping $471 million worldwide. The movie that went on to give Emma Stone her first Oscar was a huge hit, even if it has gone down in history infamously due to the Best Picture mixup that year.

The following year came the Hugh Jackman hit The Greatest Showman. After a disastrous $8 million opening weekend, the film gained momentum on social media that propelled the film to a big $174 million domestically and $438 million worldwide. Even factoring in the $84 million budget, it showed studios there was an audience there for the big, flashy musicals still. All of the major studios immediately went into production on musicals in hope to replicate the success that until that point, only Disney with their animated efforts managed to enjoy.

One of the last big hits in this resurgence was Disney’s 2019 animated smash, Frozen II, which brought in $1.4 billion.

All three of these, with their catchy tunes, giant ensemble dance numbers, and powerful performances propelled the musical genre from just the “theater kid” niche to a mainstream, regular genre for the studios. So why are they now so reluctant to jump in?

In December of 2019, just one month after Frozen II smashed animated, musical, and other records…one of the biggest flops in cinematic history released. Despite an Oscar winning director, an A-List, all star cast, and adapting one of the most celebrated stage musicals of all time…Cats opened to a measly $6 million and completed its global theatrical run at only $75 million. Universal Pictures took a massive loss on the film, but that wouldn’t be the end.

During the pandemic, with movie theaters shut down, the film studios needed to pivot to keep themselves afloat. The first domino to fall was Universal, moving their animated answer to Disney, Trolls World Tour, directly to streaming. While it was a huge hit on the streaming market, many analysts have believed it would have still made significantly more if Universal had waited for a more traditional release.

Later that summer, Disney cancelled the planned 2021 theatrical release of their filmed adaptation of Hamilton, and instead opted to throw it straight to Disney+. The streamer was desperate for new content as many planned releases were already shut down so moving the production was a natural choice. While we’re unable to see just how much revenue Disney attributed to the release, it was a huge hit. It quickly rose to the top of the trending titles charts and became a social media phenomenon as well. And Disney+ also experienced a surge of new subscriptions right as the film released.

So it would make sense that maybe the future of the musical genre, the fans who really care… are more interested in those that debut on the streaming platforms first. Well…there’s a pause for that. And this is where we start to see studios hesitant to advertise the musicals.

Over the next two years, the genre was hit with flop. After Flop. After Flop. Starting with Netflix, their much maligned adaptation The Prom was a critical and viewership failure at a 54% critic rating. Then they released Diana the Musical, another filmed adaptation that suffered a similar fate.

On the theatrical side, Warner Bros. partnered with Hamilton scribe Lin Manuel Miranda to release In The Heights. And I think the film is great, it’s a wonderful film to experience. But it flopped hard in theaters, earning only $45 million worldwide and failed to even break the top 10 on the streaming charts for HBO Max at the time. And then Universal had another much maligned flop with their critical and financial disaster, Dear Evan Hansen. Earning only $19 million its entire run and a horrible 29% critic rating, the film collapse under the weight of its successful Broadway production.

And it’s been a downhill slope since. Streaming services have dropped other musicals, but none have managed to gain widespread appeal outside of the core audiences. Theaters have also struggled, where even the formerly successful Disney recently released their animated dud Wish. Wish, which was meant as a victory lap for the studio’s 100th anniversary, has barely managed to gain any attention and suffered as a result, looking to finish the run under $100 million.

The Modern Approach

Much of the response to Wish’s failure has been pointed at its marketing. Users took to social media to poke fun at and malign the songs released prior to the film’s release, as well as what many people perceived to be over used fairy tale tropes and a very “been there, done that” story.

So that being, while trailers have been playing for Wonka for months…Warner Bros looked at the failure of In The Heights previously and thought maybe focusing less on the music and more on the flashy visuals would help. We’ll have to wait until next weekend to see how audiences reacted to that music-less marketing strategy.

As for The Color Purple, again another Warner Bros release…it’s quite possible their strategy is to focus more on nostalgia of the original film over the Broadway adaptation this film is based on. They’re also betting on the always-busy Christmas weekend to bring audiences out to experience the film. The second trailer (above) did feature a couple of the musical numbers, but from my experiences it’s still the first one showing in theaters for the most part.

Paramount opted to pull the planned direct-to-streaming release of Mean Girls, and push it directly into the slow January month. With Renee Rapp reprising her stage role and a huge nostalgia for both the original film and the stage adaptation, not showing more of the music did feel like a weird choice. But we are still a month away from Mean Girls’ release. While Wonka and The Color Purple are basically on our doors, Mean Girls still has some time to feature music in future trailers and spots.

Conclusion

It’s definitely noticeable if you watch the trailers for all three of these upcoming films that Warner Bros (Wonka and The Color Purple) and Paramount (Mean Girls) are taking steps to hide the music. And we just might know why. What seemed to be a burgeoning resurgence of the genre has failed to capitalize. While those films cannot be blamed for the pandemic and the ensuing damage it has done to the film industry as a whole, it’s clear audiences have been less than enthusiastic about returning to theaters (or even their streaming apps) for the newest releases.

Now one thing to consider is that outside of a few standouts (like Barbie and Oppenheimer), the 2023 box office has been rather lackluster in many regards. So that alone is probably already tempering studios expectations and even pundits’ expectations for these musicals.

For those that are excited, still be excited. I know I’ll be in the theaters on release day for all three of these releases, even with the studios not showing as much confidence in the music. Will audiences still show up despite hiding these? That remains to be seen. We’ll know more soon, although the early projections for all three films have been less than stellar. Stay tuned to the Everything Entertainment Network in the next few weeks for more coverage, including reviews, on all three of these.

The Everything Entertainment Network is an independent fan site covering all aspects of the entertainment industry. All photos and trailers featured in this editorial are copyrighted to their original owners.