Why Are Studios Ashamed of Movie Musicals?

Greg Ehrhardt, OnStage Blog Editorial Staff

This was originally published in the OnStage Blog newsletter on December 1st, 2023. If you would like to be the first to receive these exclusive commentaries and all newly published stories in your inbox, subscribe here.

I read with amusement this commentary about how studios are hiding the fact certain movies are musicals. I’m amused not because I don’t believe the story (it most certainly is hiding the musical aspects of certain movies) but because, if anything, Hollywood should be doing the opposite.

Movie musicals might be the best way out of the current doldrums Hollywood is facing.

Walt Disney famously believed movies didn’t need marketing to be successful, only good word of mouth. I don’t believe this to be true. Still, in 2023 (and soon to be 2024), word of mouth is crucial to getting people to stop surfing the Netflix catalog and drive to the movie theaters, especially if professional critics say anything collectively that’s not effusive in praise.

There’s not much in 2023 that will get audiences buzzing about a movie. We have fewer bankable movie stars than ever. The popular franchises, like Marvel, Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc., have concluded their storylines. Mission: Impossible and Fast and the Furious has exhausted the bag of practical stunts that can blow people away at the theatres.

Even horror movies have been in a rut lately, having seemingly exhausted most of our interesting horror premises.

But you know what is a great way to create positive word of mouth for a movie?

Have a song that people can’t stop playing on their phones (see, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”)

Musicals would appear to be for a niche audience, but in reality, they serve most of the four quadrants Hollywood shoot for. Kids, adults, and seniors love them. They are perfect date night movies. Ok, a group of 6 guys who always go see Marvel movies may not choose a movie musical, but guess what, they most definitely will see it by themselves or with family or a date.

And here’s the thing: we have nowhere near exhausted the possibilities of movie musical genres. We have most definitely exhausted the musical biopic (they aren’t really musicals, of course) and have pretty close to exhausted movies based on Broadway musicals.

But hip-hop musicals? Country musicals? Even jukebox pop musicals (ala Greatest Showman)? We have nowhere near scratched the surface of the potential there. It still blows my mind how there weren’t a hundred knockoffs of 8 Mile after its success.

Returning to this newsletter's initial premise: we’re not exactly brimming with box office failures for movie musicals. Sure, we had Dear Evan Hansen and In The Heights, two movies with super-niche audiences. But we also had Encanto, Star Is Born, Greatest Showman, La La Land, to name a few smash box office hits in the last seven years.

The irony is that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme a lot. In the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s, movie musicals were the most bankable genre we had. We had more Westerns than we currently have superhero movies. Superhero movies will likely go the way of the Western. But will movie musicals make a comeback?

Could they, ironically, save the movies again?

Time will tell, but first, studios should let musicals be musicals, especially in their trailers.