The Post-War Commercial Predominance of the Historical Epic and the Musical: 1949-1966

Looking back I think we forget just how big a force at the box office historical epics and big splashy musicals were in that period between the onset of the decline of the studios in the late 1940s (as TV emerged, etc.), and the arrival of the "New Hollywood" in the 1960s. Going by Wikipedia's listings the eighteen year 1949-1966 period, a historical epic (most often Biblical-Roman, or World War II-based), or a musical (most of which were also period pieces), was the #1 movie at the North American box office for sixteen years--Jolson Sings Again in 1949, Samson and Delilah in 1950, Quo Vadis in 1951, The Robe in 1953, White Christmas in 1954, The Ten Commandments in 1956, The Bridge on the River Kwai in 1957, South Pacific in 1958, Ben-Hur in 1959, Spartacus in 1960, West Side Story in 1961, The Longest Day in 1962, Cleopatra in 1963, Mary Poppins in 1964, The Sound of Music in 1965, Hawaii in 1966.

By contrast a period piece has not held the #1 spot at the North American box office since Pirates of the Caribbean 2 in 2006, before which one could (at least discounting Agrabah, Middle Earth, Far Far Away and Arendelle as not actually part of history, and Back to the Future as only partly set in the past and not really about that past) only accord that status to Saving Private Ryan in 1998, Titanic in 1997, Forrest Gump in 1994, Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, and Grease in 1978--a mere five occasions in the past forty-six years, three of them in one highly anomalous mid-to-late '90s patch. Meanwhile, at least discounting animated movies, Grease was the last time that a live-action musical has been its year's highest-grosser (which is to say that this has not happened in the lifetime of most Americans).

All of this, of course, reflects a broader popularity, which had the list of the top ten earning movies of any given year saturated with hits of those genres, including such Biblical/Roman epics as David and Bathsheba, Salome and King of Kings; period pieces with other themes (besides the aforementioned matter of World War II, Westerns and the occasional mainly Medieval adventure) like How the West Was Won, Ivanhoe, The Vikings and El Cid; and in the musical category, 1954's A Star is Born, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, There's No Business Like Show Business, Oklahoma!, Guys and Dolls, The King and I, Auntie Mame, The Music Man, My Fair Lady and The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

These days, plentiful as they can sometimes seem, musicals very rarely break into the top ten, with 2018--a year particularly rich in such hits--a good example. Four such movies ranked among the top 25 films of the year--the seemingly five millionth remake of A Star is Born, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Greatest Showman and Mamma Mia 2--but not one of them actually made the top ten, with the most successful, A Star is Born, making only the #12 spot.* Moreover, it is striking how many of our big musicals are, especially when they are not remakes of past hits (like A Star is Born or West Side Story), or similarly backward looking in some way (as with Bohemian Rhapsody and Mamma Mia 2, both of which ultimately depend on the continued popularity of singers, acts and hits of decades ago, Queen and ABBA in these two cases), take on a different shape--as with, again, Disney-type cartoons (like Frozen), or apt to be plain and simple curiosities (like the upcoming Joker 2).

It all bespeaks a very different market indeed--in which sci-fi/fantasy exotica has displaced the exotica of past eras, and the choreography of the action sequence the choreography of the song and dance routine, with both exemplified by the predominance of speculative fiction-themed adventure, and above all, the superhero genre that has been its most consistently successful variation.

* Granted, Bohemian Rhapsody did better globally, making the #6 spot and almost becoming a billion-dollar hit in the process--but this was an extreme outlier, as shown by how A Star is Born, now the second-biggest musical hit of the year, got knocked down to the #21 spot and The Greatest Showman fell out of the top 25.