What was it like seeing the 1978 film of The Wiz at the movie theater for those who went?

[Oliverlogan263]

I wasn’t around in the 70s to see the wiz come out so I was wondering if you were around then to what was everyone’s reaction when it did come out and was it a big deal at the time. I have this question when I saw this trailer:

What do you think people's reactions were like when they went to see 'The Wiz' first premiered back in 1978?

[abc3643]

IIRC, "The Wiz" did not do well at the box office. I believe it lost money.

In 1978, there were a lot of good and some rather intelligent movies released. "The Wiz" was not among them. "The Wiz" was based on a Broadway play of the same name. While that musical play was successful, the film wasn't. "Cats" is a later example of the same phenomenon in which the musical does not translate well to film.

Ironically, the biggest box office film of 1978 was "Grease", a movie based on a popular Broadway musical play. (So popular was that play even my parents went into the city to see it and they NEVER saw plays anywhere let alone one on Broadway.)

1978 though was during a period of transition in movies - moving away from the smart filmmaking for the 1970s to the blockbuster era pioneered by "Jaws" and then "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" in 1977. The big blockbuster for 1978 was "Superman", the first of the modern era of comic book movies. "Superman" was the 2nd biggest box office of 1978. "The Wiz" was 20th, I believe.

Personally, I never saw "The Wiz". I was 15 in 1978 and couldn't drive. Meanwhile, while I liked Michael Jackson and Diana Ross, I always saw "The Wiz" as a blaxploitation film and that didn't interest me. Also, like other critics complained about, Diana Ross (at 34 in 1978) was really too old to be "Dorothy". That said, there are plenty of other blaxploitation movies that I loved such as "Shaft" and "Car Wash" and "Super Fly".

Remember when (White) people got into a hissy fit because the new Ariel in the live-action version of The Little Mermaid was a Black girl? Well, this sort of thing likely adversely affected "The Wiz" as well. White movie-goers might think "A Black 'The Wizard of Oz' for the sake of being Black". People of all races don't like tokenism like that. That's probably the #1 reason the movie lost money and it's a shame too because blaxploitation films fell by the wayside for a while until Spike Lee came along and then John Singleton with the amazing "Boyz 'N' the Hood" in 1991.

[Oliverlogan263]

Thank you for your answer. I’ve grown up watching both the 1939 wizard of oz with Judy garland and the 1978 one with Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, you see as a kid watching the wiz many years later when it came out I wondered on the trailer I posted was the case to ask was it a big deal when it came out in 1978 and went to see who was in it like Diana Ross, MJ, Richard Pryor, nipsey Russell, and Lena Horne? I know the 70s were such a different time and that movie was the last movie to end blaxploitation at the time.

[Oliverlogan263]

And since pretty much no one’s around when the original came out way back in 1939 to what was it like to see the movie in theater, I could ask for those who were around and older now to have remember of the wiz coming out in 1978.

[laly520]

saw some online

[FunkyMonkee]

Les Wiz.