Pursuits

Disney Is Betting Holiday Moviegoers Will Still Pay Up for Musicals

Into the Woods aims to tap filmgoers’ holiday taste for musicals

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By Anousha Sakoui

November 20, 2014 at 9:27 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

This article is part of the November 24, 2014 issue of businessweek.

Disney Is Betting Holiday Moviegoers Will Still Pay Up for Musicals — Courtesy Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Everett Collection

On Dec. 25, Walt Disney opens its holiday release, Into the Woods. What’s unusual about director Rob Marshall’s film is not that it’s adapted from a 1987 stage production by James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim or that characters in the family-targeted flick include a lascivious, zoot-suited Big Bad Wolf and a philandering Prince Charming. What really distinguishes the movie, estimated by Variety to have cost $50 million, is that it’s a live-action musical.