Can "Hidden Figures" and "La La Land" get other films greenlit?
Sunday, January 15, 2017 at 4:36PM 
If you believe that success for one movie inspires greenlit for similar movies, than now is the time for filmmakers to pitch movies with black female leads and new movie musicals! Both Hidden Figures and La La Land are shaping up to be giant hits. And that's before Oscar nominations give them another boost. Hidden Figures fell only 10% in its second wide weekend which is non-existent as drops go, indicating amazing word of mouth and potentially very long legs with audiences. Meanwhile La La Land should be at $100 million in no time. Question: how many musical hits do there need to be exactly before Hollywood gets that people like them? Chicago, Dreamgirls, Hairspray, Les Miz all grossed over $100 million stateside in the past 15 years and still people act like "oh, musicals. dead genre. nobody will go see them!"...
In other happy news Elle and Moonlight received a jolt of new interest from their Globe wins and added quite a lot of new screens despite having been losing them for weeks. In unhappy news (if you like the pictures) Ben Affleck's Live by Night failed to find an audience in wide release (missing the top ten) and the hard-sell of Martin Scorsese's Silence is struggling, too at just under 800 screens.
TOP WIDE
(over 800 screens)
01 Hidden Figures $20.4 (cum. $54.8) Podcast
02 La La Land $14.5 (cum. $74) Reviewish, Demy Influence, and How Rare It Is!
03 Sing $13.8 (cum. $233)
04 Rogue One $13.7 (cum. $498.8) Review
05 The Bye Bye Man $13.3 NEW
TOP LIMITED
(under 800 screens - excluding wide releases losing screens)
01 Lion $2.2 (cum. $13.2) 575 screens Review and Nicole Kidman Chat
02 Silence $1.9 (cum. $3) 747 screens Trailer Discussion
03 Moonlight $1.1 (cum. $14.6) 582 screens Review and Podcast
04 Jackie $715K (cum. $10.4) 353 screens Review and Interview
05 Elle $314K (cum. $1.3) 209 screens Review and Isabelle's e-mails
Four of those five made Nathaniel's top 20 list
What did you see this weekend?
Reader Comments (26)
I went and saw Silence. I thought it was masterful even if it is very slow and meditative. Not too surprised it's underperforming, though. It's a quiet 3 hour religious movie. Knew it'd be a tough sell. Also, it arrived too late in the awards race.
Saw Silence. I really liked it (it'll be in my top ten by the end of it all, I suspect), but my personal convictions and the era we're living in simultaneously improve and diminish it. Prieto!!!!! Feretti!!!!
Nathaniel, I'm genuinely curious to see if La La Land and Hidden Figures inspire more films of that ilk. I suspect not, for the reasons you elucidate. I mean, you probably excluded it for quality reasons, but Mamma Mia! grossed 12 times it's budget worldwide! Whereas, for whatever reason (coughingrainedandstructuraldiscriminationcough) as soon as one fails, you know they'll take that to mean that they can't make money.
I saw " Rogue One" which was better than I expected and very good Star Wars adventure. I do hope that "La La Land"s success inspire studios to green light original movie musicals.
Just back from "20th Century Women" today, and it's very good, singular, but a much stranger film than I expected. Thought experiment: imagine almost the exact same movie, but with a scene near the start explaining that the main 4 (maybe minus Crudup, maybe not) are all space aliens trying to blend into earth society. It still kind of works, right? It would explain why the characters all think and overthink rather than feel, approach everything with an intellectual remove, why they seem frequently confused by words and music and social roles, why biography and identity are obsessively rehearsed. No coincidence that "The Man Who Fell to Earth" is a reference point. I'm teasing, of course, but that does describe the film's tone for me - so obsessed with the idea of humanity that it felt alien at times.
@Jargon
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/15/movies/live-action-musicals-la-la-land.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Farts&action=click&contentCollection=arts®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0
Maybe I was wrong....
"Question: how many musical hits do there need to be exactly before Hollywood gets that people like them?"
One every six months, But made with heart, soul and great and talented people behind.
I REALLY hope that Hugh Jackman's THE GREATEST SHOWMAN been a BIG hit on next december.
Saw "Hidden Fen- Figures" and enjoyed it. It's an important story that I had never been taught, and it needed to be told.
Maybe not so generically, and with audience pleasing notes all the way through, but still, a good Hollywood movie. Taraji is the best of the three ladies.
And my Celebrity Husband Kevin Costner, and THOSE PANTS, was perfect, of course.
I saw Fences, a fascinating portrait of a black man and the woman who supports him.
I feel like Hidden Figures is already sort of part of a trend of classroom-friendly Hollywood civil rights movies along the line of Red Tails, 42, Race, The Butler, The Help, etc. There are probably going to be one or two a year for the foreseeable future as they consistently make about 50-100 million depending on the cast and the concept.
As for musicals, they're pretty much in the same spot as westerns, they know there's a nostalgic audience with some interest in them but they don't consistently get into the nine figures range so don't expect them to get greenlit with the same consistency as, say, superhero movies. If there's a hit broadway show that want's to be adapted, it will most likely be allowed to, otherwise it's probably going to have to just fight it out with the rest of the prestige hopefuls.
"Bright Lights," which is a great HBO tribute to Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher. Moving. Refreshingly honest and candid.
Maybe Hollywood will get inspired to make more musicals and female empowerment stories, but I won't hold my breath. Studio movies now are largely dominated by superhero or animated films, with independent or foreign films barely getting into theaters. Adult movies are as endangered as giraffes.
I finaaally saw La La Land. It was all I ever needed and all I ever wanted. Do we really deserve such and elegant movie?
Also saw Silence. I really liked it, despite my worst fears (subject matter, length, Garfield). It has a strange beauty.
Saw nothing so far (enjoying the break), but will probably check out The Crown, Confirmation and more of All the Way this evening.
@ Jon
Let's see if the demise of Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus this coming May after over 100 years has any effect on interest in The Greatest Showman.
It's just a shame that so many theatre producers don't realize that film adaptations HELP their shows rather than hinder them. And now that something like Fun Home is gone from Broadway, surely a smart filmmaker and twist it into a film? So many great musicals that can also be made relatively cheaply that don't need the songbook of ABBA or big famous Broadway tunes like Chicago and Le Miz or even the big cast and bright colours of Hairspray.
Saw LA LA LAND for a second time. And it was even better.
I also ended up seeing 20TH CENTURY WOMEN and I thought it had a fantastic script. Now if it was only released in October or something. Just imagine.
Well, i am grateful that we had three original and very good musicals this year:
Moana
Sing Street
La La Land
Hope to get more and more to come
Nothing Left Unsaid, biography of Gloria Vanderbilt with her son Anderson Cooper. Excellent.
I saw La La Land, which just came out in the UK. Emma Stone was sublime. Ok so yeah, she's going to win an oscar for essentially playing Emma Stone. But she's so luminous the whole way through, I don't even think I'm mad about it.
The ending jarred with me as I watched it, but now when I think back, my god, it was perfection.
I also watched Barracuda, an Aussie 4 part TV drama, which might be some of the smartest, most subtle, bittersweet tv I've ever watched. And always great to see Rachel Griffiths sinking her teeth in to something, no matter how small the part.
Finally saw La La Land and I am in love with it. I've been listening to the songs and the score nonstop. I can see it becoming a movie I rewatch over and over again. I know "City of Stars" is the awards favorite this year, but "Audition" is what had the biggest impact on me and is probably my favorite song from the film. Now if I had an Oscar ballot best song would be a difficult choice between "Audition" and "How Far I'll Go" from Moana. Both moved me so much in their respective films.
Very busy 'catch-up' week.
Films I LOVED: Moonlight, 20th Century Women
Films I Liked: Hidden Figures
Films I'm Still Pondering: Elle; Silence
Brian -- i also love both those songs soooo much. I'll be sad if either of them is snubbed for something useless (but that category is always treaacherous.
Just thought I'd chip in that Barracuda is indeed amazing and unexpectedly addictive/heartbreaking television. I don't normally respond to Australian drama so this is a pretty special case.
Griffiths is indeed great in it, but there are lots of other fantastic performances too, from actors I was previously unaware of, like Matt Nable and Victoria Haralabidou (who is an actressexual's dream).
The Young Pope. Godfather 3 level trashiness.
We saw Hidden Figures last night, and am so in love with this movie. What a joyous night at the movies. The theater was packed and there was applause at the end. All three of these ladies need to star in another movie together right away.
La La Land is calling my name for a second watch. What a special, landmark movie. If anything can inspire a movie musical renaissance, it's this one.
NYTimes says YES!
Finally caught last two episodes of Olive Kittredge. I think it falls into the art category. Beautifully acted and directed.
Saw Hidden Figures - fun, well acted, educational but in the most entertaining way. All 3 ladies are great. I LOVED Henson's awkward, waddling walk. Such a fun little character detail.
Also caught up on Krisha. Wow. Just fantastic. It so got into the protagonists' head in a really interesting, cinematic way. Fairchild is just fantastic and I so wish someone would cast her as Meryl Streep's sister because I think there's a similarity there. Between the horror-movie score and the non-linear sequencing depicting a narrow amount of time, this movie would actually be a fascinating double feature with Jackie.