“It’s show business. No show, no business.” – Dick Wolf
Green lighting any big-budget motion pictures is, by virtue of the price tag, a big gamble. But movie studios are in the business of producing movies. Hollywood producers are paid to sniff out and pay for the next story idea that will capture the imagination—ahem, and dollars—of moviegoers. Although they can’t always forecast what will hit, they know a hit when…reports trickle in showing BIG weekend box office numbers.
And did they ever hit with Frozen. By April of 2014, the Disney animated film (which opened in November of 2013) brought in over $400 million in the U.S. alone. The budget for the film? An estimated $150 million (see box office details here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2294629/business?ref_=tt_ql_dt_4).
What made Frozen a certifiable sensation? Was it the skill of Disney animators and background artists who brought a winter wonderland (based on Norwegian woodlands and fjordlands) peopled with rich characters to life? Was it the fairy tale element, wisely incorporated into the film, based on the story “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Andersen? Was it the voicework lent to the characters? The lines the characters spoke and sang? Was it the musical score?
As is the case with any successful film, ’twas a mixture of the above, an amalgam of the work of numerous contributors that made the film work. But I venture there is a key moment that struck a chord with the primary target audience, children, and more specifically, young girls. That moment? It’s the obvious choice: the moment when Queen Elsa, restrained from being herself by her parents and her position, literally let her hair down while ascending a tall mountain, donned a shimmering icy blue dress, and taking on a newfound poise and posture, belted out the now all-too-trite refrain “Let it go!”
Though Frozen producers didn’t realize the financial success of their film until after its release, I they must have envisioned it when they first experienced THE moment. When Idina Menzel, the soprano behind Elsa’s virtuosic voice sang that chorus to them, they could surely see parents aplenty letting go of their hard-earned dollars at the movieplexes.
The momentum of the film may finally be slowing, now that Christmas 2014 is over and Santa has delivered all the Frozen DVDs and Elsa ‘n Anna dolls and other merchandise. (Did Banana Boat or Hawaiian Tropic come out with a 100+ SPF Olaf sunscreen? Just sayin’ there was an opportunity there.) All the daddy ‘n daughter duets of Idina’s chart topper and Oscar winner have been posted to YouTube.
CODA.
But the makers of that Frozen musical moment aren’t done. This Sunday, Idina Menzel will be singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl. And the composer-lyricist team who wrote THAT SONG have a new number that’ll be delivered by Neil Patrick Harris during next month’s Oscar broadcast.
