“Is This Music About Us?”: The Problem of Music Promotion in Hollywood

Hollywood has a long history of musical films. Films such as The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, All That Jazz, and Singing in the Rain are still considered classics today, not only as musicals but also as representations of the American film industry. . Broadway musicals have been adapted for the stage for as long as there has been a film industry. At the second-ever Academy Awards in 1929, “The Broadway Melody,” an adaptation of the popular Broadway shows of the time, won Best Picture. In fact, many of the Best Picture winners were musicals. More recently, 2002’s “Chicago” was the last musical to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards, with other films such as “Les Misérables,” “La La Land” and Spielberg’s remake of “West Side Story” nominated for the same award. . since.

Every year, adaptations of Broadway musicals are released in theaters. Last month, Paramount released a musical version of Mean Girls, and the month before that, Warner Bros. came out with a musical version of Mean Girls. With a musical called The Color Purple, they were pulled from the stage. If you haven’t seen these movies, you may not have noticed that they were musicals. Here’s the problem: Hollywood doesn’t want to advertise movie musicals as musicals.

Where does Hollywood’s problem with musicals come from?

To understand “why” this is a problem, we have to look at the recent history of movie musicals, specifically how they are promoted. The aforementioned “West Side Story” remake releases a trailer, with lead actress Rachel Ziegler singing “Tonight” throughout. That same year, Ben Platt starred in Dear Evan Hansen, the same role he had grown up with in New York. Likewise, he sings throughout the trailer. Finally, continuing my examples from 2021, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s pre-Hamilton musical In the Heights hits theaters. Of the three films, this is the one that is most open about being a musical in its promotion. But all three are open to being musical films. So what has changed?

In December of 2019, one film was released that I truly believe changed how the general public felt about musical films forever. One of the most famous and popular Broadway musicals of all time is getting a movie adaptation. Director Tom Hooper’s “Cats” is one of the most bizarre films I’ve ever seen, a conclusion shared by many. The film’s reception was not positive, and general audiences latched onto it for its sheer silliness and poor digital effects. Eventually, the “Cats” became a laughing stock.

“Cats” did not stop studios from producing musical films entirely. As mentioned earlier, three films were released in 2021. However, films as products are ultimately measured by how financially successful they are. In 2021, lockdowns were still in place. Movie theaters were struggling, and so were the films inside them. None of the three 2021 releases generated much box office grosses, and even with the great critical reception it received, Spielberg’s “West Side Story” was still considered a box office bomb.

Where are we today?

If musicals don’t make a lot of money, why are the films advertised as musicals? Instead, market it based on other benefits. “The Color Purple” was a remake of a beloved historical drama, “Mean Girls” was an updated version of a classic comedy, and “Wonka,” also a musical by the way, starred Timothée Chalamet. The last three musical films have based their marketing on this because this is what all the studios felt were their strongest traits. Being a musical may be considered a weakness of these films by their producers.

This brings us to last Sunday. During the Super Bowl, I hear the opening notes of a song I know well. I see a green woman, a white blonde Ariana Grande, Bowen Yang, and Jeff Goldblum. I know what movie this is. But I keep waiting for more music. The trailer ends, and I finally hear the closing notes of “Defying Gravity” from the hit musical “Wicked.” As the broadcast continued, a thought occurred to me: If “Wicked,” one of the most successful musicals of the 21st century, can’t even advertise itself as a musical, what hope does any other show have? I think the only option is to wait and see.