Jon M. Chu revealed it was “heartbreaking” and “very hurtful” for him when he learned his 2021 musical “In the Heights” was being released in theaters and on streaming via HBO Max on the same day.
Speaking to a crowd of exhibitors at the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas on Thursday, Chu lamented the “Project Popcorn” campaign put in place by former Warner Media CEO Jason Kilar back in 2021, in which Warner Bros. took its entire theatrical slate for the year, including films like “In the Heights,” “Dune,” and “The Matrix Resurrections,” and put them in theaters and on streaming day-and-date, all as a means to drive subscribers to HBO Max.
When he was asked how “In the Heights” prepared him for thinking about his next film “Wicked,” another movie musical adaptation, this time for Universal, he said it made him realize the importance of theatrical.
“We would’ve made that choice early,” Chu said if he had any intention of releasing “In the Heights” via streaming. “The canvas is important.”
The Project Popcorn debacle was hugely controversial among filmmakers, even as Warner Bros. defended it as a move to make sure theaters had a steady stream of titles available during the pandemic. Many creators were left in the dark about the studio’s intentions and were blindsided when they found out how their movie would be released.
It didn’t help the box office prospects of “In the Heights.” Despite massive critical acclaim and hype early on for the film based on Lin Manuel-Miranda’s original musical, the film was a financial disappointment, bringing in only $45 million worldwide against a $55 million budget.
That was a stark contrast to the cultural wave of excitement that followed his prior film “Crazy Rich Asians,” which made $239 million worldwide and is still one of the highest-grossing rom-coms ever. Chu said at CinemaCon he got to witness first hand what theaters can do for a movie and how it can inspire a cultural moment, to the point that the film’s leads are now movie stars getting offered lead roles.
“When you witness that, you can’t go back,” Chu said.
Chu doesn’t mean any slight on streaming and even believes he’ll make a streaming movie some day, but “In the Heights,” he said, was constructed with the idea that these characters from an underrepresented part of New York in Washington Heights deserved as much attention and Hollywood treatment as people from any other old Hollywood musical.
“To see, oh yeah they can get it for free over there, that was hurtful,” Chu said.
Though the film struggled because of its streaming presence, the film also suffered because of backlash over the colorism casting issue that even led to “West Side Story” Oscar-winner Rita Moreno coming to the defense of the Lin-Manuel Miranda musical film. People criticized the film for including primarily lighter-skinned Latino actors and virtually no Afro-Latino actors in its main cast, with most Afro-Latino performers relegated to backup dancer roles.
“In the Heights” starred Anthony Ramos as a Washington Heights resident who falls for a neighbor, played by Melissa Barrera. The actress recently admitted to The Hollywood Reporter that she found the “mean-spirited” reception to the film “soul-crushing” at the time.
“My problem was with the press that came out that just felt mean-spirited toward the film,” Barrera said. “That was my first big studio movie, and everybody was telling us, ‘Your life is going to change.’ Then it doesn’t happen, so it was very heartbreaking and soul-crushing.”
The actress added, “But I’m grateful for how it happened. It taught me a lot about the industry, about myself, about expectations, about not letting the noise outside put a stain on my experience.”
Now, Chu’s “Wicked” is getting a super-sized theatrical release, taking over not one but two box office premiere dates courtesy of a two-part take on the musical. The first installment arrives in theaters November 27, followed by Part Two one year later on November 26, 2025. Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Peter Dinklage, and Jonathan Bailey lead the ensemble film set as a prequel before “The Wizard of Oz” events.
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