'West Side Story' Underwhelms at Box Office with $10.5M But Still Earns No. 1 Spot Opening Weekend

West Side Story found its place atop the North American box office, though its opening weekend totals underperformed what was expected of the movie musical.

The Steven Spielberg–directed reimagining of the 1961 film took in an estimated $10.5 million over the weekend, which is low even for the pandemic-affected box office, according to Variety and The New York Times. The film debuted with high praise from critics, as it currently holds a 93 percent aggregate score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Disney's Lin-Manuel Miranda animated musical Encanto slipped down to second place after spending two weeks at No. 1, adding $9.4 million to its overall haul so far (about $150 million globally, per Variety). Ghostbusters: Afterlife came in third place in its fourth weekend in theaters with $7.1 million, and House of Gucci sat at No. 4 with Marvel's Eternals at No. 5.

The 2022 Golden Globe nominations were announced Monday morning, with West Side Story recognized in four categories: best motion picture, musical or comedy; best supporting actress Ariana DeBose; best actress Rachel Zegler; and best director Spielberg.

In addition to Zegler as Maria and DeBose as Anita, the film stars Ansel Elgort as Tony. Maria and Tony are two star-crossed lovers who fall on opposite sides of a forbidden romance in 1957 New York. Original star Rita Moreno returns in an all-new role too.

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Earlier this month, Spielberg, 74, explained why diverse casting for the movie-musical was a top priority from the beginning. The acclaimed director appeared on Talking Movies on BBC's Radio 4 Today where he said, "First thing I said was every single Shark, boy and girl, needs to come from the Latinx communities. And without fail."

"We just wanted for this movie to get it right in the way that we wanted every single person who plays a Puerto Rican to be from the Latinx community, and that was a mandate from the get-go," Spielberg said.

He also revealed why he chose the iconic musical as his latest project, saying, "I think I wanted to direct a musical film because I knew I couldn't sing and dance. ... It's a tremendous way of sort of throwing myself into a genre that physically I would never be part of, except to be able to tell a story in that idiom."

West Side Story is now playing in theaters.