“The Color Purple,” which cost at least $90 million to make and $40 million to market, struggled at the box office in its second weekend, selling less than $5 million in tickets in its second weekend after nearly setting a record when it opened on Dec. 25. https://t.co/DAVbfeeu4I

— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 7, 2024

The Broadway musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s novel by the same name opened on Christmas day to $18.5 million, thanks to group sales, the New York Times reported. …

However, the film’s initial response appears to have been short-lived: the movie finished the New Year’s holiday weekend with a domestic total of just $47.2 million — after Warner Bros. spent at least $90 million to make it plus another $40 million to market the movie, the New York Times reported.

The film fell 62% in sales from its opening, and is currently in 7th place behind George Clooney’s “The Boys in the Boat,” FrontPage mag noted. It has earned, to date, a total of $55 million.

[Katie suggests that the fall-off may have to do with the remake putting more emphasis on the lesbian relationship between Celie and Shug. Perhaps, although that relationship was clear in the original, if less overt. I’d guess that the story might not transfer as well to the musical format, cinematically. Spielberg’s last musical flopped at the box office too — his remake of ‘West Side Story.’ This film could regain some legs in a month traditionally used to dump bad and mediocre films, too. — Ed]