Disney’s big Christmas release is very different in 2020. It’s become a tradition for Disney to plan a major release around the holiday season, when many people have time off from work and families head to the movies. Over the past few years, this has largely been built around Star Wars, beginning with the success of The Force Awakens when it was released in December 2015, and subsequently seeing Rogue One and The Last Jedi grossing over $1 billion while in the December spot.
This year looks set to be a repeat of that, with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker slated for release on December 20, 2019. The culmination of the nine-movie Skywalker Saga, The Rise of Skywalker will likely have strong box office figures for the entirety of the holiday season, with many fans watching it more than once. There’s also Frozen 2, which arrives in November, around Thanksgiving, and will likely still play well at Christmas, but the biggie is Star Wars 9. Future years are set to continue this, with December release dates for Star Wars from 2022-2026, while another major franchise, Avatar, will have movies released in December between 2021-2027.
The almost guaranteed success of Star Wars and, seemingly, the Avatar sequels, makes Disney’s 2020 Christmas release even more surprising: Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. Disney inherited West Side Story from Fox when the two companies merged, and the musical movie, starring Ansel Elgort as Tony and Rachel Zegler as Maria, is slated for release on December 18th, 2020. In a schedule mostly dominated by big blockbusters and well-established franchises, a remake of a musical from 1961 is a rather more unusual approach, although not completely without precedent.
Disney’s Christmas release last year, with its 2018 Star Wars movie - Solo - releasing in May instead, was Mary Poppins Returns. It received mostly positive reviews, and was a moderate box-office success, grossing just shy of $350 million. That’s not bad, but it’s hardly in the same league as what Star Wars or Avatar can deliver. Spielberg’s West Side Story may well find things even harder; Mary Poppins Returns had stronger branding, especially as a true Disney movie, and had the benefit of being aimed at the whole family, bringing in old fans and new ones. West Side Story, despite the original being considered a classic of the genre, might not have quite the same pull.
Still, there are reasons for Disney to have faith in West Side Story. Late-year musicals do have a strong track record in recent years, with The Greatest Showman, in particular, a runaway box-office success, while La La Land became a major awards contender, and Disney’s own Into The Woods performed solidly at the box-office back in 2014. Even bigger is that it’s directed by Spielberg. His name isn’t quite the pull it once was, but with the right film and marketing he’s still a director people will turn out to see the latest movie from. Disney is clearly banking on the combination of the festive season and the romance of this story, love for West Side Story, and the Spielberg name to draw in fans for its 2020 Christmas movie, before it can revert back to type in the years afterward.
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- West Side Story Release Date: 2021-12-10
