8 Reasons ‘In The Heights’ Stumbled At The Box Office

In the Heights is exactly the kind of movie everyone claims to want but then ignores when Hollywood actually makes it.

We played ourselves. Warner Bros. had been trying to keep expectations in check for the last few months, knowing full-well that In the Heights was being commercially overhyped and that the online fandom/anticipation was not being matched outside the film nerd bubble. Hence the nationwide free Mother's Day sneak preview and the deluge of free word-of-mouth screenings leading up to the film's domestic theatrical debut. Even while Warner Bros. sold the living hell out of this $55 million musical, they knew they weren't breaking through. At their best, Warner Bros.' marketing is the best in the business at turning non-franchise films into "got to see this in theatres" event movies. Think, offhand, Magic Mike, The Conjuring, Gravity, American Sniper, It, A Star Is Born and Crazy Rich Asians. Unfortunately, the magic didn't work this time.

In the Heights placed second this weekend just below the third Fri-Sun frame of A Quiet Place part II, earning just $11.405 million. Rank and “A” Cinemascore grade aside, the gross is lower than the $14.1 million launch of Tom & Jerry earlier this year and the $13.3 million debut of Clint Eastwood's Jersey Boys in summer 2014. Even with the rave reviews and scorching online-specific buzz, In the Heights is a prime example of "the beautiful lie." Simply put, the Internet has convinced us (if not necessarily Hollywood) that audiences want non-franchise, star-driven, high-quality and inclusive movie-movies in their local cinemas, even as they've spent the last five years ignoring such fare.  In the Heights was almost everything we say we wanted in theatrical movies. Yet it opened just a touch higher than (the admittedly quite good) Peter Rabbit 2.

So, what happened? Well, without further ado…

1. No movie stars

 Unlike Ride Along, Hustlers or the deluge of above-noted Warner Bros. hits, In the Heights lacked anything resembling mainstream star power. Anthony Ramos may deserve to be a star and might well have been one in a less IP-driven marketplace. Unfortunately, he's unknown to most of the audience. Jimmy Smits and Stephanie Beatriz have minor supporting roles, while Corey Hawkins is a regular in Straight Outta Compton, Kong: Skull Island and Fox's 24 reboot without being a "butts in seats" name. Otherwise, it's primarily unknowns and young actors hopefully finding fortune and glory elsewhere. Melissa Barrera will be in the fifth Scream, while Leslie Grace is better known as a musician than an actress. You didn't have a Constance Wu, an Ice Cube, a Jennifer Lopez, a Lady Gaga, a Sandra Bullock or a shirtless Channing Tatum.

2. The lack of a plot hamstrung the marketing.

 The lack of stars and the comparatively niche source material put it at a disadvantage compared to Les Misérables and Hairspray. In addition, the general scarcity of plot (including cutting out much of the interpersonal conflict from the original play) made it harder to market in a raw "What is this movie about?" sense. Crude as this may be to say, the overriding marketing message was that In the Heights was "Hispanic Americans: The Movie." There was little to offer those who didn't find specific value in such demographic representation or didn't need a 144-minute movie to remind them that "not a white guy" people are every bit as deserving of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The media coverage, emphasizing the film's demographic importance and preordained cultural value, almost made it seem like "good for you" homework rather than escapist entertainment.

3. It's a little-known play with no marquee characters or breakout songs.

 Even with four Tony awards and a following among theater nerds, In the Heights is a comparatively cult-level play in terms of general audience awareness. It was sold as, at best, a play you've never heard of from that guy you know from Hamilton. And when he hosted Saturday Night Live in late 2016, Lin-Manuel Miranda was self-aware enough to know that nobody in the audience knew who he was. It features no marquee characters and offers no marquee songs, the latter of which are going to be a problem if anyone is expecting Greatest Showman-like legs. Of course, that Hugh Jackman/Zac Efron/Zendaya musical was a once-in-a-generation occurrence ($184 million domestic from a $13.5 million Wed-Sun debut), the leggiest wide release since Titanic. It also wasn't available for free on HBO Max for the first 31 days.  

4. Diversity only matters for movies audiences already want to see.

Here's a dirty, horrible secret: Audiences don't care that much about diversity. Yes, inclusivity can and should be an added value element in a film folks already want to see, like the newest MCU movie or the latest Star Wars story. It is rarely an outright deterrent for getting audiences into the theater for a film they already want to see. But if the film isn't already on the "must-see" list, the demographic makeup of the cast makes almost no difference. It won't stop Furious 7 or The Force Awakens from being a smash, nor will it prevent Terminator: Dark Fate or Birds Of Prey from being a flop. Onscreen/offscreen inclusivity was a bonus and/or added-value element for already "got to see" mainstream rom-coms (Crazy Rich Asians), high-concept horror (Us), ensemble comedies (Girls Trip) and superhero movies (Black Panther).

5. Online interest didn't translate into general audience curiosity.

Moreover, online media/film conversation represents a small minority of the general population. So Twitter trends and online discourse can skew the narrative in a way that doesn't represent the mainstream. For example, the online left swore that Green Book was the root of all evil, but it won Best Picture and legged out to $322 million (the biggest-grossing Best Picture winner in almost a decade). The alt-right tried to convince you that Captain Marvel was a disaster-in-the-waiting or that anyone gave a damn about "women-only" screenings of Wonder Woman. Cue $1.128 billion worldwide for the Brie Larson sci-fi flick and $821 million for the Gal Gadot World War I actioner. The online geek fandom convinced you/us that Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, Dredd and Kick-Ass were destined for glory and that "real" Star Wars fans hated The Last Jedi.

6. General audiences are only too happy to stick to franchise flicks.

They also convince us that audiences want original, new-to-you, star-driven, inclusive and/or non-franchise studio programmers aimed at both adults and kids. But time and time again, we see the opposite at play. Fox released a slate of just such films in 2018, think The Hate U Give, Bad Time at the El Royale, Widows and Love Simon. Their only outright smashes that year were Deadpool 2 and Bohemian Rhapsody (a "problematic" Freddie Mercury biopic that won several Oscars and earned $905 million worldwide). Then we wondered why Disney stripped Fox for spare parts. Audiences ignored those films (and the likes of A Simple Favor) while flocking to Halloween, The Grinch and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. We ignore Lucy in the Sky and Upgrade but flock to Joker and Venom and then complain about Cruella.

7. General moviegoing has shifted to streaming.

Even if the HBO Max factor didn't bite too much into the film's debut (it's not like we were looking at a $35 million launch if it were theatrically exclusive), the casual "going to the movies just to see a movie" demographic has been decimated since 2016. Blame more affordable home theater technology and TV or streaming content that approximates 90% of what you'd get in theaters. The new normal is that audiences only go to the movies when there is specifically something they want to see in theaters.  In the Heights seems like precisely the kind of movie we all claim to want in theaters but then only watch it when it's "free" on Netflix or Hulu. I fear Covid hastened the theatrical demise of the non-franchise/non-event, old-school "movie-movie" in favor of superhero movies and nostalgic comfort food.

8. We're still in a pandemic.

 In what may be a "one step forward, one step back" pattern we've seen this season, the soft opening for In the Heights has made everyone catch their breath after the blow-out win of A Quiet Place part II. Likewise, Tom & Jerry (yay!) was followed by Raya and the Last Dragon (boo!), and Wrath of Man (yay!) was followed by Spiral (boo!). Even with much of the country heading toward vaccination and the nation's theater's slowly reopening, there will still be some reluctance, especially/potentially among older audiences and communities of color, to go back to the movies. The mask mandates being perhaps prematurely revoked won't help. If you have any reluctance about going to theaters, well, a credit card and a high-speed internet connection get you In the Heights for just $15.

Epilogue

 The good thing about streaming is that every site wants as many customers as possible. They are currently in a relentless pursuit to fill every potential niche. I worry that the services will skew more "white guys" as they get more dominant, as we saw with Fox and UPN, but we aren't there yet. As I noted when Jon M. Chu's Crazy Rich Asians debuted, the burden of proof was not on Asian American moviegoers to show that a big movie mainly starring Asian actors could play at the same level as their white peers. It was on the theatrical industry and theatrical studios to show that films like Crazy Rich Asians could still break out and make a more significant cultural and commercial impact in theaters than they might on Netflix.

The good news is that this soft opening, even if it legs out a little (legs like Mamma Mia and A Star Is Born still only gets it to $55-$60 million domestic), won't mean that the next In the Heights won't get made. Jon M. Chu will still get credit for making a critically-acclaimed crowdpleaser that, had it opened sans Covid last summer, might have performed just a little bit better. Ironically, like Tenet, a movie that was supposed to be a "different kind of summer movie" amid the conventional franchise flicks, was held up as a seasonal savior and found to be comparatively wanting. The relative theatrical failure of Booksmart didn't stop Unpregnant, Plan B or Banana Split. But it just might debut on Amazon Prime and might be gone from the pop-culture consciousness in 72 hours.