Spielberg ‘West Side Story’ debuts weakly with $10.5M

By JAKE COYLE
AP Film Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Despite critical acclaim and two years-worth of anticipation, Steven Spielberg’s lavish “West Side Story” revival made little noise at the box office. According to studio estimates on Sunday it debuted with $10.5 million in ticket sales. The muted reception for a $100 million song-and-dance spectacular is a worrisome result for a movie industry struggling to recapture its finger-snapping rhythm. “West Side Story” hit theaters on a wave of glowing reviews and expectations that it could play a starring role in March’s Academy Awards. But “West Side Story” has faced a challenging marketplace for both adult-driven releases and musicals. Audiences have steadily returned to multiplexes in the second year of the pandemic, but older moviegoers have been among the slowest to return.