Marred by negative reviews and Covid concerns, the film fell short of expectations and collected a muted US$7.5 million (RM31.4 million) from 3,365 United States cinemas in its debut.

Industry experts predicted the movie musical would make at least US$10 million between Friday and yesterday.

Even though the film seems unlikely to turn a profit, the losses won’t be catastrophic. “Dear Evan Hansen” cost US$28 million to produce, a modest budget for a musical.

That puts Universal in a much better position compared to its last movie musical, “Cats”, which opened to US$6.5 million in late 2019 and ultimately lost the studio nearly all of its US$100 million budget.

The critical response to “Dear Evan Hansen” has been vastly different than the glowing reactions that greeted the 2016 stage version, which netted six Tony Awards and cemented Ben Platt as a star. It underscores the struggle to bring even commercially popular musicals to the big screen.

At least one positive: audiences, at least the few who bought a ticket on opening weekend, appeared to like “Dear Evan Hansen” more than critics did. It landed an “A-” CinemaScore from moviegoers, which is exponentially better than its 33% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Reigning box office champion “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” had no trouble staying atop domestic charts, even in its fourth weekend of release.

The Disney and Marvel superhero adventure added a solid US$13.3 million in ticket sales, bringing its domestic tally to US$196.5 million, a pandemic record.

After this weekend’s haul, “Shang-Chi” surpassed its fellow Marvel Cinematic Universe installment “Black Widow” (US$183 million) as the highest-grossing movie of the year. Unlike “Shang-Chi,” the Scarlett Johansson-starrer wasn’t available exclusively in cinemas, streaming simultaneously on Disney+.