“To start off saying ‘musical, musical, musical,’ you have the potential to turn off audiences. I want everyone to be equally excited.”
Those are the phrases of Paramount president of world advertising and distribution Marc Weinstock, explaining to Variety why his firm made the choice to obscure the truth that their new model of Mean Girls was really a musical in a lot of the movie’s trailers and adverts.
“We didn’t want to run out and say it’s a musical,” Weinstock added, “because people tend to treat musicals differently. This movie is a broad comedy with music.”
Call me loopy, however I really feel like a extremely good phrase to explain a “broad comedy with music” is a musical. But what do I do know? Definitely not a lot! And actually much less about advertising than Marc Weinstock. His technique paid off, as Mean Girls opened in theaters to $32 million, practically incomes again its total price range in lower than per week of launch.
In explaining that technique, Weinstock additionally famous you could see the identical considering within the trailers for Wonka and The Color Purple, two newer musicals that minimized (if not outright hid) their true musical nature from potential ticket patrons — one thing I seen and wrote about right here at ScreenCrush a number of months in the past.
Right now I’m much less within the explanation why studios are doing this. (I assume they assume that musicals don’t promote tickets after West Side Story, Dear Evan Hansen, and In the Heights flopped.) And whereas I might like to know why studios are making musicals within the first place in the event that they assume audiences don’t wish to watch them, let’s desk that a part of the dialog for now, too.
Instead, let’s concentrate on these individuals who supposedly don’t like musicals. Now, I’ve heard sufficient anecdotal tales to consider that there are moviegoers on the market who really feel this fashion. (More than one one who noticed Mean Girls in theaters instructed me they witnessed audible groans from different viewers members when characters began singing and so they realized they’d been hoodwinked into seeing a film the place folks [GASP] sing!)
What I don’t consider is that anybody who has been launched to the proper musicals would nonetheless dislike them.
Because musicals are stunning. Like nice motion films, they reap the benefits of the distinctive pleasure of watching our bodies in movement on display. You may assume you’re not a fan of musicals; I occur to consider you’re simply not a fan of musicals but.
And so under I’ve collected a listing of 12 musicals I feel can flip any musical hater right into a musical fan. There isn’t a single title on this listing primarily based on a Broadway present. In most circumstances, the singing onscreen is motivated by the characters’ jobs or pursuits. In different circumstances, the worlds of those movies are so fantastical that it’s actually no nice leap for the characters to to burst into tune.
(For the document: I like musicals primarily based on Broadway exhibits, and I’ve no subject when singing in films isn’t motivated by plot. But I can see how they’ll really feel odd.)
Here are 12 film musicals to watch if you wish to fall in love with musicals… after which preserve scrolling for a sampling of musical scenes from every of my picks. I feel they all have the potential to activate audiences. I need everybody to be equally excited.
The Best Movie Musicals For People Who Hate Movie Musicals
These films are so nice they may flip a musical skeptic right into a believer.
BONUS: A Selection of Scenes From These Great Musicals
READ MORE: The 21 Best Movie Musicals of the twenty first Century
Discussion about this post