‘In the Heights’ Box Office Bust: Why It’s Not HBO Max’s Fault and 5 Other Takeaways

There was a lot of hope from theater owners and industry observers that Warner Bros.’ “In the Heights” would help maintain, or even grow, the recent box office momentum. Instead, the film opened to just $11.4 million and lost what was expected to be an easy No. 1 launch to the third weekend of Paramount’s “A Quiet Place — Part II.” . With critical acclaim and early Oscar buzz, there had been hope that the Jon M. Chu musical would capture a section of the audience that isn’t interested in horror films like “A Quiet Place” but searching for a feel-good movie after the hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the film has fallen short of even the most conservative of expectations. Even franchise tentpoles released during the worst stages of the pandemic — “Wonder Woman 1984” opened to $16.7 million on Christmas weekend — have outperformed “In the Heights.”While there’s still time for the film to turn its fortunes around, there’s a lot of questions about what went wrong with this launch of a film from the director of the 2018 hit “Crazy Rich Asians” based on Lin-Manuel Miranda’s pre-“Hamilton” Broadway hit. But there’s one major element surrounding the...

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