(NewsNation) — “The Color Purple” outperformed industry expectations to become the biggest Christmas Day opening in 14 years.
The musical adaptation of the beloved Alice Walker novel opened to $18.1 million on Monday and hit $25 million after two days. This is the second-best Christmas Day opening ever after 2009’s Sherlock Holmes.
Walker’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel got its first film adaptation by Steven Spielberg in 1895 before becoming a smash Broadway hit in 2005.
Now, four decades after “The Color Purple” became a literary sensation and a Steven Spielberg film, the story is on the big screen again. This time it’s a grand, big-budget Warner Bros. musical starring Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson as the sultry singer Shug Avery, and Danielle Brooks reprising her Broadway role as the strong-willed Sofia.
Audience Reviews
Blitz Bazawule’s 2023 adaptation broke the Rotten Tomatoes score of Spielberg’s non-musical version with a 95% audience rating and an 87% critic score. Spielberg’s adaptation received a 94% from audiences and 73% from critics.
“It’s absorbing: big song-and-dance numbers and emotional set pieces, dynamic performances from everyone, and a feeling of reverence for the story and what it’s meant for 40 years,” said New York Times movie critic Alissa Wilkinson.
While the story features abuse, rape and incest, it is one Black audiences have found joy in for years.
“I don’t think the movie’s about pain,” Samantha N. Sheppard, associate professor of cinema and media studies at Cornell University told Vox. “I think people have a hard time sitting with a movie featuring traumatic events still being ultimately a story about love, sisterhood, family, and connection.”
However, some say the emphasis on joy paired with the dramatic tone of a musical adaptation takes away from the severity of the story.
“Bazawule and his screenwriter Marcus Gardley seem reluctant to sit too long in the discomforting facets of this story, choosing instead to over-index on “joy,” NPR pop culture writer Aisha Harris wrote.
“Big windups and dramatic slaps that for this viewer conjured the over-the-top manga-inspired violence of The Boondocks. The presumably unintentional effect is to literally knock the wind out of the abuse, to defang it so it doesn’t feel quite so real,” Harris added.
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FILE PHOTO: David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, producers Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey attend a premiere for the film “The Color Purple” in Los Angeles, California, U.S., December 6, 2023. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo -
FILE PHOTO: Cast members Colman Domingo, Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, Ciara Princess Wilson, Corey Hawkins and Director Blitz Bazawule attend a premiere for the film “The Color Purple” in Los Angeles, California, U.S., December 6, 2023. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo -
FILE PHOTO: Cast members Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks and Fantasia Barrino attend a premiere for the film “The Color Purple” in Los Angeles, California, U.S., December 6, 2023. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo -
FILE PHOTO: Cast member Fantasia Barrino attends a premiere for the film “The Color Purple” in Los Angeles, California, U.S., December 6, 2023. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo
Factors of Success
Oprah Winfrey was one of several big-name producers on “The Color Purple,” alongside Spielberg, Quincy Jones and Scott Sanders. Winfrey got her acting break and first Oscar nomination playing Sofia in the 1985 adaptation, before helping Sanders turn it into a Broadway musical 20 years later.
The film was helmed by Bawazule, who received acclaim and recognition for co-directing Beyonce’s visual album “Black is King.”
“I thought, if I could just find a way to show the audience how this Black woman from the rural South was able to imagine her way out of pain and trauma it will debunk a myth that is that people who have dealt with abusing trauma are docile and passive or waiting to be saved,” Bazawule said. “If we could just imbue in (Celie) that scale, then that’s the version that needed to exist. Thankfully they said yes.”
However, Bazawule had to jump through some hoops to bring his vision to the big screen.
“It’s not the first time I have been in a production of this scale but what matters to me is that it’s a Black production and it’s a production with Black producer, a Black director, predominately Black cast,” Henson said. “It’s like usually we’re supposed to make a dollar out of 15 cents. And after 20+ in the game, it’s like finally the studio trusted us to deliver.”
“This is a huge undertaking to be part of,” said Brooks. “This movie is about legacy and it’s what I’ve been calling a cinematic heirloom.”
Oscar Buzz?
While the film has already sparked Oscars buzz, Bazawule says he is not particularly interested in the “dog and pony show” of awards season.
“Our job was to go in and honor Alice Walker’s brilliant book. We did that. We found our healing through it and we’re an amazing group together. Our Q&A’s are out of this world,” he said, before taking a pause. “Now THAT I want and award for.”
The Broadway version picked up 11 Tony nominations in 2006 and won the award for best actress for LaChanze, who played Celie before Barrino stepped into the role.
The revival in 2015 earned four Tony nominations and scored two wins, including the trophy for Best Revival of a Musical and Best Actress for Cynthia Erivo as Celie.
