Steven Spielberg's remake of West Side Story opened this weekend with a modest $10.5M at the box office. The adaptation is Hollywood legend Spielberg's first foray into the genre, who has previously stated that adapting West Side Story has been a desire since childhood. Spielberg has even updated and adapted various parts of the new movie, most notably in its representation of the Puerto Rican community, the Sharks, by choosing to reposition the characters as young men protecting their community from xenophobic threats.

Inspired by William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and based on Jerome Robbins' musical with lyrics from the late Stephen Sondheim, Spielberg's adaptation of West Side Story stars Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler as Tony and Maria, two teenagers living in a culturally divided New York City in 1957. Their blossoming love affair after meeting at a high school dance inevitably comes into direct duress when two communities, the Sharks and Jets, come into conflict. Robbins' original musical had previously been brought to the silver screen in 1961's West Side Story starring Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer, and resulted in an Academy Award for Best Director and Best Picture for directors Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins.

Related: West Side Story: Why Spielberg's Sharks Change Was The Right Choice

As audiences took to theaters this weekend, Deadline has revealed that Spielberg's West Side Story opened at the box office with a meager $10.5M across Friday and Saturday, including previews. Despite its $100M+ production budget, star-studded cast, and Academy Award-winning director at its helm, the performance comes in contrary to initial projections that West Side Story could amass $31M on its opening weekend.

The performance of West Side Story is comparable to that of another musical released in 2021, In the Heightsfrom director Jon M. Chu and music from Alex Lacamoire, Bill Sherman, and Hamilton's Lin-Manuel Miranda. It too was critically acclaimed, but many looked to the simultaneous release of the movie in cinemas and on HBO Max as the cause for its low box office turnout of just $11.5M. The concurrent release of many new movies in theaters and on streaming platforms have been seen across the film industry since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and has revealed a shift in the traditional theatrical release window.

Yet, Spielberg's movie is a solely theatrical release, so another conclusion is required. Given its positive reviews, it already triumphs over 2019's holiday-season musical, Catswhich was universally derided and mostly remembered not for its musical numbers, but for its awkward digital interpretation of anthropomorphic cat-people. Spielberg won't have that to worry about thankfully, but there still remains a general hesitation by many to venture out to cinemas because of the pandemic, so West Side Story's success will largely come from word-of-mouth and the proximity of the holidays when cinema admissions naturally reach a peak. However, with the release of projected box-office-juggernaut Spider-Man: No Way Home on December 15, competition for box office receipts is right around the corner.

Next: West Side Story Proves You Should Never Underestimate Steven Spielberg

Source: Deadline