Did people care a lot about Walk The Line? And does that even count as a musical? … Dr Zhivago…?
I used to work in a cinema. When Sweeney Todd was on, people came out 15 minutes after it started, confused and sometimes enraged that “they’re singing in this?!” That’s of course partially because of how that movie was advertised: as a quirky Burton style slasher, no mention of singing. But it’s no coincidence that marketing agencies feel like they have to hide the singing. (Also, this is Germany, the source musical is virtually unknown here)
Wild speculation: international markets have become more important and you have to find ways to make musicals work in different languages. Translating songs is an art in and of itself so localising musicals is more expensive (your local voice actors also need to be able to sing - or you need to hire additional people for the singing). You could just leave the songs in the original language but then of course an important layer of meaning, arguably the entire reason for this to be a musical, is lost to at least a part of the audience. Do subtitles (as I’m pretty sure they did with Sweeney Todd) and people complain about having to read. This might ultimately cause fewer musical films to be green-lit but again, speculation.
Did people care a lot about Walk The Line? And does that even count as a musical? … Dr Zhivago…?
I used to work in a cinema. When Sweeney Todd was on, people came out 15 minutes after it started, confused and sometimes enraged that “they’re singing in this?!” That’s of course partially because of how that movie was advertised: as a quirky Burton style slasher, no mention of singing. But it’s no coincidence that marketing agencies feel like they have to hide the singing. (Also, this is Germany, the source musical is virtually unknown here)
Wild speculation: international markets have become more important and you have to find ways to make musicals work in different languages. Translating songs is an art in and of itself so localising musicals is more expensive (your local voice actors also need to be able to sing - or you need to hire additional people for the singing). You could just leave the songs in the original language but then of course an important layer of meaning, arguably the entire reason for this to be a musical, is lost to at least a part of the audience. Do subtitles (as I’m pretty sure they did with Sweeney Todd) and people complain about having to read. This might ultimately cause fewer musical films to be green-lit but again, speculation.