While Warner Bros. Discovery held its breath asAquaman and the Lost Kingdomtook its long-awaited plunge into theaters over the holiday weekend, the studio’s other fresh entry,The Color Purple, blew the competition out of the waterat the box office on Christmas Day. Drumming up $18.15 million on its opening day, the musical drama earned itself bragging rights as thesecond-biggest Christmas Day opening of all time,falling just behind Warner Bros. 2009 feature,Sherlock Holmes, which raked in $24.6 million. The movie also deliveredthe biggest Christmas Day opening for a film since 2009, andwas the number one movie of the dayat the domestic box office.
Landing an audience score of94% on Rotten Tomatoes, couldThe Color Purplepoint to a fresh start for movie musicals? The movie is certainly in good company as theTimothée Chalamet-ledWonka, another musical from Warner Bros, is also concurrentlyexceeding expectations at the box office. The movie starsFantasia Barrino(American Idol),Danielle Brooks(Orange is the New Black),Colman Domingo(Passing Strange),Taraji P. Henson(Empire) andHalle Bailey(The Little Mermaid).
The popularity ofThe Color PurpleandWonkcertainly alludes to a hopeful future for movie musicals. With other fan-favorite crossovers includingWest Side Story,Les Misérables, andRentall releasing during the holiday season, none came remotely close to nabbing the impressive numbers seen by Warner Bros. Discovery’s title. Overall, it was a massive win for the studiowhich also dominated sales withAquaman and the Lost KingdomandWonka. WithThe Color Purple, Aquaman 2,andWonkabeing released within the same time frame, the studio took an absolute leap of faith hoping that fans would dole out their hard-earned bucks on either a musical or superhero film during one of the busiest weekends of the year.
The Future of Movie Musicals
WithThe Color Purple’s popularity breathing new life into the genre, it will be up to upcoming films likeMean GirlsandWicked Part 1to keep the steam going into the New Year. An adaptation of the stage production (which was an adaptation of the2004 film of the same namewhich was itself an adaptation of a book),Mean Girlscruises into cinemas at the beginning of the year and is already expected to be a top earner for Paramount Pictures.
The same can be said for the arrival of the first part ofJon M. Chu’s feature-length adaptation ofWicked,which hopes to defy gravity over next year’s Thanksgiving weekend. WhileMean Girlswill certainly be a gauge of just how much audiences are back into the musical spirit,Wickedwill be the real test.According to Playbill, after two decades on Broadway, theStephen Schwartz-penned musical is the second-biggest earner, just behindThe Lion King– take thatPhantom! If that figure tells us anything, it’s thatthe title has all the makings of the biggest movie musical box office seller of all timeshould Universal play its cards right.
Find out everything we know about Warner Bros’The Color Purplein our handy guideand see it on the big screen now. Check out the trailer below and catchMean GirlsandWicked Part 1in theaters on June 08, 2025, and July 25, 2025, respectively.
The Color Purple
A decades-spanning tale of love and resilience and of one woman’s journey to independence. Celie faces many hardships in her life, but ultimately finds extraordinary strength and hope in the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood.
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