Steven Spielberg’s critically acclaimed West Side Story sang off key in its domestic debut with a subdued $10.5 million from 2,800 theaters, but the closing song about the musical’s box office fate has yet to be written.

Prior to the weekend, 20th Century Fox and Disney had hoped that the big-budget event film, which arrives 64 years after the iconic Broadway stage and 60 years after the first film adaptation, would gross at least $13 million domestically.
Some tracking services estimated a $15 million increase in first-weekend sales.

The number were pretty bleak over seas as well. West Side Story debuted to an even more disappointment with $4.4 million in 37 material markets, for a global start of $14.9 million, well short of Disney’s prediction of $25 million.

While many major markets, including South Korea and China, have yet to open, box office analysts say the film isn’t resonating in Latin America or Asia. This puts pressure on Europe, where the omicron variant is slowing box office recovery in key markets like Germany, where West Side Story debuted to a meager $300,000. Outside of the United States, the United Kingdom led with $1.7 million.

The hope now is that the film will receive positive reviews — it currently has a 94 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The majority of West Side Story ticket buyers (26 percent) were over the age of 55, with more than half of the audience being over the age of 35. If not, Spielberg’s film, which cost upwards of $90 million before marketing, could suffer significant losses.

It could, however, turn around. When The Greatest Showman, starring Hugh Jackman, opened to $8.8 million in late December 2017, it was written off as a flop. The film, on the other hand, quickly became a sleeper hit, grossing $174 million domestically and $437 million worldwide.