I’m surprised she didn’t mention the Rocky Horror Picture Show. One of the few musicals that only works in a movie theatre because of mass audience participation.
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1967 with Doctor Dolittle dying at the box office. Its been parody or “Lets try something different” ever since then.
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After Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Hollywood realized it could never be topped or even equaled so why bother. This killed the musical.
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It didn’t die, it just emigrated to India.
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Came here for that.
Also, for this: Xanadu isn’t as bad as anyone said and deserves higher esteem.
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≥17. It’s Cats, not Cat.
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It has a terrible ending. The leads just sit next to each other and the lights go out. The credits roll with the camera still on them.
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I’ll grant you that. A freeze-frame when ON-J’s character shows her face would’ve been better.
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And in 2014 Disney made a movie of Into The Woods which I quite enjoyed (RIP Sondheim)
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Apparently, some people liked Melancholia
(It’s listed fiirst.)
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Still plenty of great Bollywood musicals out there.
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Still, the songs are all hers…and beautiful. 
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Those critics clamor for a return of mid-budget movies that are innovative and daring.
Those critics will pass away still clamoring for it. Because the factors that have led to the demise of those films were not audience desire, but the same factors that are destroying much of our landscape: consolidation of the industry; the rise of vulture capitalism and monopolies; the precipitous decline of screens in response to those two factors; and a risk averse economic model that puts “make billions” over “do something new and creative.” Like the youtube creator said, it’s similar to the 1960’s studio system. It took the death of that system to lead to the “golden” years of film of the 1970’s with its daring stories. That’s less likely to happen now.
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While this is all true, I think the current system is facing a challenge from streaming services. Filmmakers no longer need to rely on movie theaters to be seen-- anyone with a computer, cell phone, or tablet and an internet connection can stream movies from a variety of sites (some legal, some… not) and skip the theaters completely. Larger players are commissioning their own work (Netflix, Hulu, Shudder) or picking up festival films to give them a wider audience.
If physical theaters want to remain viable, they may have to start taking more risks with what they show… or they might double-down on playing it safe and focus harder on blockbusters with “guaranteed” audiences. It’s hard to say how it’s going to go yet, but if theaters get desperate enough for butts-in-the-seat, they might choose to diversify their fare, and that could result in older, less-seen genres, like the musical, making a comeback. (This would be easier for independent locations, as lIRC, larger chains have deals with major studios for distribution requiring X number of screens per title.)
I might be premature, but I think the rise of streaming will chip away at the current system’s lock on content creation and distribution, and that could shake things up enough to spark some “interesting times” in the industry. I think that’s enough cause for a little hope, IMHO.
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Weren’t the lyrics by von Trier?
Some, but not all…
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I wonder if companies like this will be successful in keeping them going:
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A couple years ago we saw two concerts that Fathom showed, they were one night showings across the country.
One was Hungarian Rhapsody, a great classic Queen concert and the other was a Carol King concert where she performed the Tapistry album live.
The audiences in the theater behaved like they were at the show. It was really cool.
I wish they would do more stuff like that and I think they could even pull off actual live events.
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