Blitz Bazawule's recent "The Color Purple" adaptation aligns with the novel, receiving praise from Alice Walker and sparking LGBTQ+ representation discussions. The film's holiday box office success reflects its broad appeal.
In Steven Spielberg's 1985 film adaptation of Alice Walker's novel "The Color Purple," the characters Celie and Shug share a restrained kiss, but the movie doesn't delve deeply into the love affair that played a significant role in the original novel.
Blitz Bazawule's recent musical adaptation of "The Color Purple," which premiered on Christmas Day, addresses this by depicting a deeper connection between Shug (Taraji P. Henson) and Celie (Fantasia Barrino). In the film, it's evident that the two characters share not only a romantic relationship but also a strong friendship.
Walker expressed her sheer happiness that Shug and Celie's relationship is portrayed as she originally intended. She shared in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, “I really love it that [audiences] have to take away the reality that Shug and Celie become lovers, because I think that we have really needed help there. We really needed to see that love is love. You know, that people love whoever they love, and it is their right to do that.”
Oprah Winfrey, who serves as a producer for the new film and received an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Sofia in the 1985 movie, noted that even the brief kiss between the two characters in the original film was considered a lot for its era.
In an interview with THR for a recent cover story on the film, Oprah Winfrey joked on the 1985 kiss, saying, “God, there was so much talk about that kiss in 1985, and it wasn’t even a kiss in 1985. It was like a peck. It wasn’t even a peck, it was a p.” She continued, “And we thought, certainly now you can express the nature of their relationship.”
Walker mentioned that the original film's producers, Steven Spielberg and Quincy Jones, who are also producers of the new version, made sincere efforts to portray the relationship accurately during a time when homophobia was even more widespread than it is in the present day.
“Bless Stephen and Quincy they tried their best; I mean they were so afraid because you know the homophobic culture,” she said.
Nonetheless, certain aspects have remained relatively unchanged. Henson anticipates that there will be individuals who may resist the depiction of a same-sex relationship, and she has already come across some comments on her personal social media profiles reflecting that sentiment.
“Now, some prude under my comment, somebody was like, ‘I sure hope they don’t explore that lesbian relationship.’ I was like, ‘Well baby, did you read the book?’ We didn’t invent this stuff. This is what she wrote. It is real,” she told THR.
Danielle Brooks, portraying the character Sofia, also expressed her belief that there should be greater representation of same-sex relationships on screen, with a particular focus on the African American community.
“People should see themselves, I think the Black community hides so much and is so ashamed of their sexuality and doesn’t allow people to be free and be who they are,” she said. “We need more stories of black women seeing themselves and loving on other Black women if that’s what they so choose to do. I think it’s a beautiful thing.
Warner Bros. Discovery had a joyous Christmas indeed. Their latest film, "The Color Purple," raked in $18.15 million in box office receipts, marking the highest Christmas Day opening since 2009 and the second-largest Christmas Day opening in history.
When combining ticket sales from "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" and "Wonka," the studio managed to secure the top three positions at the box office during the holiday period.
The movie surpassed the Christmas debut of "Les Misérables" in 2012, which earned $18.1 million, and fell short of the 2009 holiday opening of "Sherlock Holmes" at $24.6 million, as reported by Comscore data.
Warner Bros.' lineup of December releases covers a wide range of genres and demographics, providing a diverse selection of entertainment options for nearly every type of moviegoer.
“The lineup … reflects a perfectly orchestrated staggered release of these titles over the course [of] the all-important holiday frame, and the results are most impressive,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.
"The Color Purple," which counts Oprah and Steven Spielberg among its producers, is a cinematic adaptation of the Broadway musical that originated from the book and movie of the same title. This film is designed to appeal to an older demographic, a group that has been hesitant to revisit theaters due to the pandemic.