………………………………………………………………………………….………………………..
BY BILLY SUTER
IT MAY be dividing film fans – on one side, people obsessed with the movie and its soundtrack; on the other side, people wondering what the fuss is all about – but the glossy new movie musical, The Greatest Showman, starring Hugh Jackman as legendary circus man P T Barnum, is fast making its mark.
This week, in its third week of climbing the UK chart, the soundtrack album toppled Ed Sheeran’s Divide from No 1, while the soundtrack is in its second week crowning the American Billboard 200 chart, having risen from No 5 to oust Taylor Swift’s Reputation from the top spot a week ago.
The Greatest Showman is reportedly only the fifth soundtrack in the past decade to spend multiple weeks at No 1.
Also of note is that four songs from the soundtrack entered the US chart this week. The highest charting is the rousing This Is Me by Keala Settle and The Greatest Showman Ensemble, which recently took the Golden Globe award for best song from a film and is hotly tipped to take the Oscar in the same category in March. The song is at No 83 on the Billboard chart this week.
Rewrite the Stars, by Zac Efron and Zendaya, is in spot 85 on the Billboard Top 200; Never Enough by Loren Allred is in position 88; and The Greatest Show by Hugh Jackman and The Greatest Showman Ensemble is at No 95.
Also nominated for Golden Globe Awards for best musical or comedy, and for best actor in a musical or comedy (Jackman), The Greatest Showman had, as of January 14, 2018, grossed $94.6 million in the US and Canada, according to Wikipedia.
The film, directed by newcomer Michael Gracey, has also taken $100.1 million in other territories, making a worldwide total of $194.7 million, against a production budget of $84 million.
In the short time it has been on release, The Greatest Showman, according to online site Box Office Mojo, has already emerged as the 12th most profitable live-action movie musical since the mid-1970s – emerging five spots ahead of the much-longer-running Moulin Rouge, a film some have compared it to.
The 2017 version of Beauty in the Beast is in the top spot on this list, followed by Grease, Chicago, La La Land, Les Miserables, Mamma Mia, Into the Woods, Enchanted, Hairspray, The Rocky Horror Show and Dreamgirls.
.....SoSuterBill..... 