In the Heights star Melissa Barrera looks back on the musical's box office woes and shares that the reception felt very personal. In June 2021, Warner Bros. finally released the eagerly-anticipated movie adaptation of In the Heights, the first Broadway musical from Hamilton sensation Lin-Manuel Miranda. The Jon M. Chu-directed movie went into its opening weekend bolstered by glowing reviews, Miranda's name, and the success of the original stage show.
Unfortunately, the opposite happened. In the Heights opened to a mere $11.5 million, much lower than initial estimates and a disappointing start for a summer release. Though musicals can often demonstrate long legs at the box office, the movie topped out at $29.9 million domestically and $43.6 million globally. Almost immediately, experts began pointing fingers at the different reasons why In the Heights stumbled.
I just thought that it was so unfair what happened with In the Heights. All the headlines that started coming out after we premiered were so brutal and horrible, and they felt very personal to me. It just felt like the industry was blaming us for not doing well and was blaming the fact that we were all Latinos and was blaming the fact that it was a musical that not a lot of people knew. So it just felt very personal, and I remember feeling very shitty afterwards.
It's hard not to get disappointed over a movie like In the Heights flopping. As a Latino-led film, it was a special moment for representation on the big screen, and it pushed the limits of what a movie musical could be. In the Heights deserved to be seen by more people, but there's no explaining just why it failed to resonate with audiences.
Hearing Barrera's own regret over how In the Heights performed offers a unique look at how creatives respond to flops. It can't feel good to have worked on a film for so long, only to see it be largely ignored by audiences. With In the Heights now available again on HBO Max, perhaps it will find new life there as so many movies do these days. It might even be enough to erase the current narrative surrounding the film, which largely involves its box office performance.
We’re people going to movie theaters last year? Isn’t that the reason it was shown on HBO Max…
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