West Side Story Flops As Fans Blame Casting

Steven Spielberg’s rendition of ‘West Side Story’ might be a hit with critics, but it tanked at the box office. Many have speculated that this is all because of Ansel Elgort.

The film stars Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler (her feature film debut). People have blamed The Fault in Our Stars star Ansel Elgort for the film’s failure at box office due in part to allegations of sexual misconduct against him. However, it could be the pandemic and a sluggish holiday trend. As most movie goers are saving their seat for the upcoming winter break and Christmas holidays.

The numbers are in for the film, and it doesn’t look like people were flocking to catch it on the big screen. West Side Story only raked in around $4.1 million on opening day (Friday). It has been projected for a $10 to $11 million haul for the whole weekend if its lucky, as its competition In the Heights earned just $11.5 million on opening weekend.

Elgort was accused of sexually assaulting a minor women. An unnamed woman told her story on Twitter on June 19, 2020, and then deleted it. She claims she was 17 when she had sex with him in 2014. She alleges she felt violated afterward, and went on to say she suffers from PTSD. After the initial allegation 2 other women also accused the actor of sexual misconduct.

Ansel addressed and denied the initial allegation in a since-deleted message insisting it was consensual. In his denial, Elgort addressed his first accuser directly, claiming that “her description of events is simply not what happened. I have never and would never assault anyone.” He said that they had a “brief, legal, and entirely consensual relationship” in New York. (The age of consent in New York is 17).

In Spielberg’s defense, Ansel Elgort bagged the role before all of this went down. Back in October 2018, a 24-year-old Elgort, who starred in Baby Driver the previous year, was officially cast as Tony, the male lead. According to Elgort, Spielberg personally calls to tell him he got the part.

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