The Success of Movie Musicals

This year’s Oscar awards ceremony marks an interesting time because there are three movie musicals that are nominated for the Best Picture award. Wicked (2024), A Complete Unknown (2024), and Emilia Perez (2024), are all movie musicals that have multiple Oscar nominations. While these films are all quite different from one another in the way they incorporate music, they all classify as musicals, and though Broadway shows in New York are financially and physically inaccessible to most Americans, the film adaptations have broadened the scope of viewership of these shows across the country and around the world. 

What is a Movie Musical? 

Movie musicals are classified by any film in which the characters sing songs which are interwoven into the plot. The music is sometimes accompanied by dancing. There are multiple types of movie musicals. First, musicals in which the songs are diegetic, meaning that the characters are aware of the music. Examples of this type of musical include Pitch Perfect (2012), Sing (2016), and Coco (2017). On the other hand, examples of musicals in which the characters sing to advance the plot and not as a performance include but are not limited to: The Little Mermaid (2023), Matilda (2022), and Mean Girls (2024).

As for the relationship between Broadway and the Big Screen, film adaptations of musicals differ in multiple ways. Many movie musicals are adaptations of Broadway shows that began that way, whereas some movie musicals are the original form of the musical, which is then adapted to become a theatrical adaptation. Then, there are the interesting cases where musicals are adapted from films and then a movie musical is made from the product, or vice versa. Examples of this include Hairspray, Cinderella, and Moulin Rouge. Many of these are originally adaptations of novels, so it can be tricky to tell which came first, the musical or the movie. 

So, you might be asking, if the musical already exists, why would you need to make a movie of it? While remakes and revivals are a big trend in Hollywood right now, there are many benefits to adapting a musical into a film, and even more benefits to including music in a film in the first place. Firstly, a stage performance can only include so much. The editing, special effects, sound design, and location diversity of a film allow the musical that was originally confined to a Broadway stage to expand its creative possibilities. On the side of the film, adding music helps drive the story along. While making the plot more interesting with exciting singing from the characters, song lyrics also have the ability to convey the inner thoughts and feelings of a character more clearly than dialogue can. As a more recent example, the song in Wicked (2024) titled “What Is This Feeling?” spends over three minutes describing the loathing that two characters have for each other, which really gets the point across to the audience in a way that simple dialogue would not be able to. The music drives a more developed emotional context for the characters and plot of the film. Afterwards, you are able to relive the experience of watching the film, feel the same things you felt in the theater, when you listen to the soundtrack. There is an added layer of storytelling when the story is told through both music and dialogue. 

The Success of Movie Musicals 

While many movie musicals are box office hits, the success of Broadway adaptations in specifics compared to their Broadway box office revenue is not always superior. It is not easy for a movie to have the same impact as a live performance would because that personal connection is lost. Furthermore, the fanbase of a theater musical may be small, but the seats of the theater still fill up, but when a movie counterpart premieres across the world, we start to see how small the fanbase is. A case of this happened with Jon M. Chu’s In the Heights film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway musical. The Broadway show won the Best Musical Tony Award in 2008, but the movie adaptation did not see the same fame or level of revenue. Contrarily, Chu also directed the 2024 movie adaptation of Wicked, which broke the record for becoming the highest-grossing Broadway musical adaptation in history in just eight days after its release in November of last year. When making an adaptation, it is vital to take into account the factors that could contribute to the success of the film version. 

Some parts of Broadway shows are irreplicable onscreen. The personal connection that is gained between the stage actor and the audience member is a special feeling that does not translate in a film. While CGI and special effects software does open new doors in the film industry, certain effects are more impactful in a live theater. For example, the current Broadway production of The Outsiders utilises effects like video projections, flashing white lights, and rain onstage to instill emotional effects in the audience. This production was built for the stage, and greatly differs from its film counterpart, going to show that one-to-one replications of shows and films are difficult to conceive. 

More challenges to film adaptations include the musical numbers themselves. For some audience members, it is difficult to have a suspension of disbelief that is necessary to immerse yourself into the musical world. Musicals are generally harder for audiences to immediately understand which could limit potential audience range and decrease review rates of the film. Lastly, musicals take a lot of work to create. Choreographing musical singing and dance numbers is a complex process that not every production has the time for. It is almost like making multiple mini music videos inside of the film itself, which is quite a big commitment. 

Despite these downsides, there are many benefits to adapting musicals into movies. Firstly, Broadway musicals are expensive to produce and time consuming. The actors are performing daily and the production is being carried out at the same rate. Making a film allows for the product to be more widely distributed. Additionally, there simply are not enough theaters on Broadway for every show to be on at once. Having a film adaptation of a past musical allows the public to view the show even after it leaves its run on Broadway. Film adaptations of musicals are more accessible to a worldwide audience and the tickets are cheaper, meaning that the show is able to get more visibility. Movie musicals open new doors and opportunities to the theater community, and should be appreciated for bringing more theatrical art to the Big Screen.

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