To mark the 10th anniversary of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, “Hamilton: An American Musical” (Hamilton), the pro-shot has been brought to the big screen for the first time. The release of “Hamilton” originally was shown the weekend of Sept. 5; however, the theatrical experience of the musical continued gaining traction, so the film has extended its time in theaters to the weekend of Sept. 19.
Because of the pandemic, the global box office lost more that 70 percent of revenue in 2020, with the ticket sales falling from over $42.5 billion in 2019, to around $12.4 billion. Movie theaters across the nation have been forced to close, due to the low number of movie theater attendance. There has been a growing trend towards the use of streaming services such as Disney+, Netflix, and Hulu. Countless movies, TV shows, documentaries, and more can be found on these platforms. For most, there is no need to leave the house when there is access to at-home viewing.
Despite these statistics, devoted fans flooded theaters dressed in costume, wearing powdered wigs and colonial coats to see “Hamilton” in theaters. This brought attention back into movie theaters, so much so that the musical placed second at the U.S. box office just in its first weekend. Junior Adrianna Palazzola said that she enjoyed seeing audience participation from belting songs to showing up in “Hamilton” attire.
“I think that the experience of seeing a movie you enjoy live is just great. In my theater, a bunch of people [were being] very participatory, [people were even] singing the songs. [The] people in my theater were dressed up, and it was super hype [and] awesome,” Palazzola said.
Many people can agree that seeing Hamilton in theaters, with each audience member more excited than the next, gets a buzz going as each track plays. In an interview with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, the musical’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, encouraged audience members to enjoy themselves when seeing “Hamilton” in theaters.
“Turn-up, sing a long, we are all gonna watch Hamilton,” Miranda said.
