Posted 3:20 PM by Gene

Yes, Virginia, there is a Red Country and a Blue Country. And for proof we turn to a seemingly unlikely source: the movie box-office numbers. Specifically, to what the Movies-Are-Better-Than-Ever Brigade has dubbed The Greatest Film Musical of All Time: Chicago. Last weekend it did a little over $7 million in business. This weekend it did over $10.7 million. A big increase, right? Just one problem: last weekend the Disney masterwork played at 623 screens. This weekend it played at 1,841. Just by going wide it suffered an almost 50 percent drop in its per-screen average. When you think it had been doing over $11,000 per at the 623, it looks even worse. And I doubt that it's playing in smaller houses; all the gigaplexes are pretty much standardized. This says to me that what had been -- and I stand my ground on this -- a news-hack and urban favorite has not played well in the hinterlands. It may yet have legs, but this is not good news for Mickey Mouse Michael (although what's bad news for him is good news for the rest of us.) What's galling is that this is an apparent shoe-in for the Best-Picture Oscar® -- something The Wizard of Oz and Singin' in the Rain didn't win.

I'm reminded again of its counterpart, The Greatest Stage Musical of All Time, The Producers. Billboard ran an article on its cast album, which briefly made the bottom of the 200 list -- quite an accomplishment for a cast album these days (remember when My Fair Lady sold seven million copies?). The article said the album was selling well in the big urban areas that had theater but wasn't selling anywhere else. It's not that people don't want musicals; we're starved for them. It's that when the news hacks start with their adjectives people know not to trust them (except in the highly credulous media centers). They did it with The Producers, which has long ceased to be a sell-out, and they did it here.

This is also proof that the movie biz makes product for the ad-blurb-copywriters, media-company shareholders, and dumb teenage boys. But that's an argument for another time.

P. S. As for all the bull about this new masterpiece inspiring more musicals -- and I discussed that before too -- we forget that another Disney masterpiece, Evita, starring The Man, was a hit. Did you see any new musicals afterward? Newsies?!?!? The Fantasticks?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?