Brokeback Mountain set for West End adaptation; are theatrical adaptations lucrative business for filmmakers?

It netted Ang Lee the Best Director Academy Award in 2006, but will he go on to pick up an Olivier or Tony Award in the future? That could be a possibility, as his critically acclaimed 2005 film, Brokeback Mountain, is the latest production to transition from the screen to the stage, based on the film by Ang Lee which itself was based on a short story by Annie Proulx in The New Yorker back in 1998.

The West End production is set to cast Mike Faist and Lucas Hedges as the ranchers depicted on the big screen by Jake Gyllenhaal and the late Heath Ledger. Faist might be a familiar face for theatregoers as he starred in another theatre-to-cinema screen adaptation in Steven Spielberg’s 2021 film West Side Story.

Lucas Hedges meanwhile has an Oscar nomination under his belt already for his supporting role in the 2016 film Manchester by the Sea, featuring that year’s controversial Best Actor winner, Casey Affleck. The stage adaptation has drafted in writer Ashley Robinson to translate from screen to treading the boards at @sohoplace in London’s West End while the production will be directed by Jonathan Butterell.

Butterell has also tapped a former collaborator to compose music specifically for this production, Dan Gillespie Sells, who worked with Butterell during the production of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, which had its debut season at The Crucible in Sheffield in 2017.

Brokeback Mountain’s season at @sohoplace is set to commence on May 10 2023 and will run an initial season lasting until August 12 2023, with bookings available now through the theatre’s website. But in the pantheon of theatre productions based on original cinematic adventures, how have the stage adaptations fared compared to box office numbers in the cinemas upon their initial release?

Of course, ask most people to name a big theatrical adaptation of a box office smash and they will point you in the direction of The Lion King, which has amassed over $1.8 billion USD since its first performance in 1997. A testament to the incredibly innovative way that the show was developed and executed for theatregoers.

For the most part, many theatrical adaptations have managed to better their cinematic outings, which was to be expected given the cost of theatre tickets on Broadway and the West End. That’s no small feat though and not everyone has had the same success. Shrek, for example, pulled in $491,800,000 USD worldwide when it was released in the cinema, while the theatrical adaptation only pulled in $46,361,426 USD.

The same can be said with Legally Blonde, starring Reese Witherspoon and The White Lotus’ Jennifer Coolidge, which took a cinematic total of $124,900,000 USD at the box office, while its theatrical counterpart currently has grossed $56,338,126. Perhaps the lesson here is that, in terms of film-to-theatre adaptations, go big (The Lion King), go cult (Monty Python and The Holy Grail/Spamalot) or go home (not featured: Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark.)