The final weekend tally is in. “In the Heights” est morte.
Not just here, but everywhere.
The Jon M. Chu directed musical could not get past $20 million in its second week of release. It finished its 14 days at $19.6 million. If Warner Bros. keeps it in theaters over the summer “In the Heights” might get near $40 million, but it’s doubtful.
Even worse, the international audience seems to have no interest in it. It made just $2 million this weekend in other countries, the biggest audience being the UK. And they may have come because of the “Hamilton” connection to Lin Manuel Miranda. In Mexico and Spain, where you think there might have been some enthusiasm, there was none.
It’s a headscratcher, but this thing went wrong fast. Even opening the Tribeca Film Festival didn’t help, maybe because Tribeca and Washington Heights are literally almost 200 blocks apart.
The biggest blow was Lin-Manuel, who everyone loves, allowing himself to apologize for his own work. He killed the movie with that mea culpa. If he didn’t believe in his award winning popular musical, who should? If you bow to social media pressure, you will never hear the end of it, friends.
