\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Color Purple,\u201d a new musical take on Alice Walker\u2019s landmark novel, seemed to arrive as an instant hit.<\/p>\n
Awash in critical exultation<\/a>, the movie rolled into theaters on Christmas Day and sold more than $18 million in tickets, a near record for the holiday. Audiences gave it an A grade in CinemaScore exit polls. Oprah Winfrey, who produced the film with Steven Spielberg, celebrated on Instagram. \u201cI\u2019m overwhelmed with gratitude,\u201d she wrote<\/a>, adding, \u201cFor y\u2019all to buy tickets, dress up in purple, and show up in droves is filling me up.\u201d<\/p>\n But the sizzle has turned to a sputter.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Color Purple<\/a>,\u201d which cost Warner Bros. at least $90 million to make and another $40 million to market, collected an estimated $4.8 million from 3,218 theaters in the United States and Canada over the weekend, according to Comscore, which compiles box office data. It was enough only for seventh place, behind George Clooney\u2019s \u201cThe Boys in the Boat\u201d \u2014 a period drama that also arrived on Christmas Day \u2014 even though \u201cThe Boys in the Boat\u201d had only 2,687 theaters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n What happened?<\/p>\n In Hollywood parlance, the movie has not broadened beyond a \u201cspecialty audience.\u201d To put it more candidly, \u201cThe Color Purple,\u201d enthusiastically received by Black moviegoers, needs more white, Hispanic and Asian ticket buyers to give it a chance. The film\u2019s opening-weekend audience was 65 percent Black, 19 percent white, 8 percent Hispanic and about 5 percent Asian, according to PostTrak, a service that provides studios with demographic information on ticket buyers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Warner Bros. has not given up.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the jury is going to be out for several weeks, as people talk to their friends about what movies they have seen and enjoyed \u2014 what has moved them and uplifted them \u2014 and the film continues to be honored by awards groups,\u201d said Jeff Goldstein, Warner\u2019s president of domestic distribution.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we know about older audiences is that they don\u2019t rush out to theaters,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n In total, \u201cThe Color Purple\u201d has now taken in about $55 million, with advance group sales contributing to the large Christmas Day result. (Theaters and studios split ticket sales roughly 50-50.) The film will start its overseas rollout on Jan. 18.<\/p>\n In a promising sign for the film\u2019s box office, more white and Hispanic moviegoers came out in recent days. The film\u2019s second-weekend demographic breakdown was 47 percent Black, 39 percent white, 10 percent Hispanic and less than 4 percent Asian, according to PostTrak data.<\/p>\n As Mr. Goldstein said, \u201cThe Color Purple,\u201d starring Fantasia Barrino<\/a>, Taraji P. Henson<\/a>, Danielle Brooks<\/a> and Colman Domingo<\/a>, could also benefit from awards attention. Two of the film\u2019s actresses, Ms. Barrino and Ms. Brooks, have been nominated for prizes at Sunday\u2019s Golden Globe Awards. (In what was viewed as a snub, Globe voters did not nominate \u201cThe Color Purple\u201d for best movie, musical or comedy.) Oscar nominations will be announced on Jan. 23.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe Color Purple\u201d was always viewed by box office analysts as a question mark. Ms. Winfrey continues to command enormous attention \u2014 when she disclosed in mid-December that she had started taking a medication to manage her weight<\/a> the world seemed to stop spinning, at least for a few seconds. But she does not appear in the film.<\/p>\n Warner Bros. backed the movie with a jubilant marketing campaign that emphasized uplifting images. The film opens with a splashy production number that features at least 40 people wearing their Sunday best and dancing in formation while singing about making a \u201cjoyful noise.\u201d The film\u2019s ending is also notably uplifting.<\/p>\n But much of the material in between is difficult. The central character, Celie, lives in poverty in rural Georgia in the early decades of the 1900s and must survive being repeatedly raped by a man she believes is her father. He forces her to give away her newborns and later marry a man who severely beats her and treats her as his household servant.<\/p>\n Some box office analysts wonder if the story is overworn. Ms. Walker\u2019s best-selling and Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, published in 1982, has already spawned a major film (Mr. Spielberg\u2019s 1985 adaptation starring Whoopi Goldberg and, in an Oscar-nominated turn, Ms. Winfrey) and two successful Broadway productions. Musicals can also be a hard sell, and Warner Bros. currently has two in the marketplace. \u201cWonka,\u201d starring a singing Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet, was No. 1 for the weekend, collecting about $14.4 million for a new domestic total of $165 million ($466 worldwide).<\/p>\n The only new wide-release movie, \u201cNight Swim,\u201d a low-budget horror film from Universal Pictures and Blumhouse, arrived in second place, selling an estimated $12 million in tickets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n