The Newsies Views

• General Goods

Newsies (originally titled, Hard Promises) is a 1992 Disney musical film starring Christian Bale, David Moscow, and Bill Pullman. Robert Duvall and Ann-Margret also appeared in supporting roles. The movie is widely claimed to have gained a cult following after its initial failure at the box office. The film marked the directorial debut of choreographer Kenny Ortega (Dirty Dancing and High School Musical) and featured the music of composer Alan Menken (Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Enchanted, Tangled) alongside J.A.C. Redford (Oliver & Company and A Kid in King Arthur's Court).

Newsies was not a commercial success when first released; in fact, it ranked among the highest-costing and lowest-grossing Disney live-action films in the studio's history. Movie critic/historian Leonard Maltin even christened it Howard the Paperboy (in reference to another infamous box-office flop, Howard the Duck). Despite the box office disappointments, a huge cult following of fans developed.

However, the picture gained fans when it was released on VHS and was played on the Disney Channel. After much petitioning, Newsies was released on DVD in 2002. It has since gained a modest yet enthusiastic following.[1][2][3] The movie is currently in development as a stage musical that will contain the songs from the movie, as well as several new numbers.[4] Recently, a new petition has started up to have a 20th anniversary DVD released with an hour of footage that had been originally cut from the film added to it. [5]

Newsies received harsh reviews from most critics and audiences and made $2,819,485 at the U.S. box office, becoming a box office bomb. On Rotten Tomatoes, its average score was 30%. However, Newsies has since gained a measurable cultural fan base. Christian Bale is reportedly not a fan of the film. He said: Time healed those wounds. But it took a while. [8] He's also acknowledged that while it was not a commercial success, its fanbase is surprisingly large, saying: “You say something bad about Newsies and you have an awful lot of people to answer to.”[9]