The Greatest Showman

Plot

In the 19th century, young P. T. Barnum and his tailor father Philo work for the Hallett family. Barnum falls for their daughter, Charity. Barnum and Charity write to each other while Charity is away at finishing school. They reunite as adults ("A Million Dreams") and eventually get married and raise two daughters, Caroline and Helen, in New York City. They live a humble life, and though Charity is happy, Barnum craves more ("A Million Dreams (Reprise)").

Barnum loses his shipping-clerk job when the company goes bankrupt due to a typhoon that sank all the firm's cargo vessels. He later secures a bank loan, deceptively using his former employer's lost ships as "collateral". He opens Barnum's American Museum, which features various wax figures, in downtown Manhattan.

Ticket sales are slow, so Caroline and Helen suggest showcasing something "alive". Barnum adds "freak" performers, such as bearded lady Lettie Lutz and dwarf man Charles Stratton ("Come Alive"). This garners higher attendance, but also protests and poor reviews from well-known critic James Gordon Bennett Sr.. Barnum renames his venture "Barnum's Circus" and recruits playwright Phillip Carlyle to help generate publicity ("The Other Side"). Phillip is mesmerized by the African-American trapeze artist Anne Wheeler, but he hides his feelings. Phillip arranges for Barnum and his troupe to meet Queen Victoria.

Barnum persuades famed Swedish singer Jenny Lind to tour America with him as her manager. Lind's American debut is a success ("Never Enough"). During her song, Phillip's parents see Anne and him holding hands and he quickly lets go. As Barnum gains favor with aristocratic patrons, he distances himself from his troupe, advising them to work without him. Dejected, they decide to stand against their harassers ("This Is Me"). When Phillip and Anne attend the theater together, they run into Phillip's parents. They chastise him for "parading around with the help." Phillip tries to convince Anne that they can be together, but she disagrees saying they will never be accepted socially ("Rewrite the Stars").

As Barnum takes Lind on a U.S. tour, Charity stays home with the girls and feels isolated from her husband ("Tightrope"). While on tour, Lind becomes romantically attracted to Barnum. When he rejects her advances, she threatens to quit and later retaliates with a kiss at the end of her last show ("Never Enough (Reprise)") which is photographed by the press.

Cast

Sandou Trio Russian Bar makes an uncredited background cameo during the revamped circus scene.

Production

Development

During rehearsals for the 81st Academy Awards in 2009, producers Laurence Mark and Bill Condon compared host Jackman to Barnum. After Jackman expressed interest in a Barnum project, Mark and Condon approached Jenny Bicks, a writer for the ceremony. She and Condon wrote The Greatest Showman. The project was first announced in 2009 under the title The Greatest Showman on Earth, with Jackman already set for the title role. In August 2011, Michael Gracey was chosen to direct. In 2013, Fox hired songwriting team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul to write the songs.

In early 2016, the cast performed a read-through in front of producers to green-light the film. Pasek and Paul approached Jeremy Jordan to sing the part of Carlyle, since Jordan recorded demos for the film in 2015. The day before the read-through, Jackman underwent nasal surgery and was ordered by his doctor not to sing. Pasek and Paul asked Jordan to also sing the part of Barnum, while Jackman acted out the scenes, to which Jordan agreed. While the cast performed "From Now On", Jackman disobeyed orders and began singing along with Jordan. This brought the read-through to an emotional end, which resulted in the film being greenlit.

On June 15, 2016, Zac Efron began negotiations to star in the film, and in July 2016, Michelle Williams was cast. The film's choreographer was Ashley Wallen, with Mathieu Leopold serving as circus coordinator and choreographer. Shannon Holtzapffel also served as a choreographer on the film.

Filming

The film took seven years to develop, and Jackman had 10 weeks of preparation before filming started. Rehearsals on the film began in October 2016 in New York City, and principal photography began on November 22, 2016.

Post-production

In December 2017, James Mangold, who had worked with Jackman on several projects (including 2017's Logan), reportedly had been brought in to serve as an executive producer during the film's post-production. In an interview, director Michael Gracey noted, "There were eight producers on this film, and it was amazing having one of them be a filmmaker."

Music

Musical numbers

Benj Pasek and Justin Paul wrote all the songs appearing in the film.

"The Greatest Show" – Hugh Jackman

"A Million Dreams" – Ziv Zaifman, Jackman, Michelle Williams

"A Million Dreams (Reprise)" – Austyn Johnson, Cameron Seely, Jackman

"Come Alive" – Jackman, Keala Settle, Daniel Everidge, Zendaya, The Greatest Showman Ensemble

"The Other Side" – Jackman, Zac Efron

"Never Enough" – Loren Allred

"This Is Me" – Settle, Ensemble

"Rewrite the Stars" – Efron, Zendaya

"Tightrope" – Williams

"Never Enough (Reprise)" – Allred

"From Now On" – Jackman, Ensemble

"The Greatest Show (Finale)" – Jackman, Efron, Settle, Zendaya, Ensemble

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album is produced by Justin Paul, Benj Pasek, Greg Wells, Kevin Weaver, and Pete Ganbarg, featuring the 11 tracks performed by the cast. In the United Kingdom, on March 23, 2018, it became only the second album in 30 years to achieve 11 consecutive weeks at number one, equaling the record set by Adele's 21. As of January 25, 2019, the album has spent the sixth-most time at number one at 28 non-consecutive weeks, matching the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The Greatest Showman: Reimagined

On November 16, 2018, a remix album was also released, The Greatest Showman: Reimagined, which features covers of songs from the soundtrack by musicians including James Arthur, Anne-Marie, Sara Bareilles, Kelly Clarkson, Kesha, Pink, Panic! at the Disco, Years & Years, Jess Glynne, Ty Dolla $ign, Missy Elliott, and Zac Brown Band, among others.

Release

The Greatest Showman held its premiere on December 8, 2017, aboard RMS Queen Mary 2, while she was docked in New York City. The film was originally scheduled to be released on December 25, 2016, in the United States and Canada, but was moved to avoid competition with La La Land. The release date was pushed back a full year from its original release date of December 25, 2016, to December 25, 2017, before then being moved up by five days from December 25, 2017, to December 20, 2017.

As with Disney's live-action Beauty and the Beast, a sing-along version of the film was released in the United Kingdom on February 23, 2018. The film had a limited IMAX release on February 2, 2018.

Marketing

On June 28, 2017, 20th Century Fox released the first international trailer to promote the film. On November 13, 2017, the second trailer was released.

On December 17, 2017, Fox televised a live performance of "Come Alive" from Warner Bros. Studios during its live musical special A Christmas Story Live!. The number featured the film's stars and a cast of 150 dancers.

In 2018, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment promoted the film with The Greatest Dance with Shannon Holtzapffel, a campaign listed at the Mumbrella Entertainment Marketing Awards.

Home media

In the United States, the film was released via digital download on March 20, 2018, and was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Ultra HD on April 10, 2018.

In the United Kingdom, the film was released first on digital download on April 27, 2018, while DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Ultra HD copies went on sale on May 14, 2018. These versions included the sing-along version, two hours of behind-the-scenes footage, and music machine jukebox features.

In connection with the film's DVD and Blu-ray release, Dance Australia reported that Holtzapffel led a two-minute tutorial to "The Greatest Show". London Theatre later noted that a tutorial was also released to celebrate International Dance Day.

The Greatest Showman was released on the US and Canada version of Disney's streaming service Disney+ on August 14, 2020, following Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019.

Reception

Box office

In its original release, The Greatest Showman grossed $174.3 million in the United States and Canada and $260.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $435 million against a production budget of $84 million. It is the third-highest-grossing musical ever in North America and also the third-highest globally, and Deadline Hollywood estimated the film would turn a profit of $50–100 million.

In the United States and Canada, The Greatest Showman was released alongside Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, and was projected to gross around $21 million from 3,006 theaters over its first six days. It took in $2.5 million on its first day and $2.1 million on its second. Over the three-day weekend, it grossed $9 million (for a six-day total of $19 million), finishing fourth at the box office, behind Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Pitch Perfect 3. In its second weekend, the film grossed $15.5 million, again finishing 4th at the box office. The weekend-to-weekend increase of 76.3% marked the largest ever for a film playing in over 3,000 theaters, and the fourth biggest ever. In its third week, the film dropped 11% to $14 million. The film made $13 million in its fourth weekend and $11 million in its fifth, finishing 4th and 5th at the box office, respectively. The film continued to hold well in its sixth week of release, grossing $9.5 million and returning to 4th place, and again finished fourth in its seventh week, this time grossing $7.8 million (a drop of just 18%). It is the 14th-highest-grossing film that never reached first place at the American box office.

Critical response

The film received mixed reviews from critics upon release. As reported by Entertainment Weekly, critics felt The Greatest Showman embraces the spectacle and showmanship of Barnum via vibrant musical numbers and lavish visuals, but its superficial approach to character development and historical nuance makes it more an extravagant diversion than a substantive biographical portrait. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 56% of 263 reviews are positive, and the average rating is 6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Greatest Showman tries hard to dazzle the audience with a Barnum-style sense of wonder—but at the expense of its complex subject's far more intriguing real-life story." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 48 out of 100, based on reviews from 43 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars and a 70% "definite recommend".

Owen Gleiberman of Variety gave the film a positive review, writing, "The Greatest Showman is a concoction, the kind of film where all the pieces click into place, yet at an hour and 45 minutes it flies by, and the link it draws between P. T. Barnum and the spirit of today is more than hype." Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, saying, "With all that corn and cheese and old-timey sentiment, The Greatest Showman ends up scoring some very timely social arguments. P. T. Barnum himself would have approved the dramatic sleight of hand." Steve Persall of Tampa Bay Times gave the film an 'A', and said, "The Greatest Showman is the feel-good movie the holiday season needs," while William Bibbiani of IGN gave The Greatest Showman a score of 7.9 out of 10, and called the film, "wildly entertaining".

Britton Peele of The Dallas Morning News said, "The story is interesting and the beats are well acted, but it's the musical numbers that make The Greatest Showman." Jackie K. Cooper of HuffPost gave the film a score of 10/10 and wrote, "You will be overwhelmed by the music and magic that explode on the screen. The film has a message that should resonate with today's world concerning acceptance and courage." Hugh Armitage of Digital Spy said, "The Greatest Showman is a broad and solid crowd-pleaser. An undemanding spectacle for all the family." Alan Jones of the Radio Times called it "A joyously uplifting potpourri of visual resplendence, stylish choreography and solid gold magic, one engineered to approximate the lavish spectacle the movie musical once offered."

Historical revisionism

The Greatest Showman included many historical inaccuracies and omissions. Vanity Fair called it "a highly fictionalized musical biopic". The New Yorker said, "there's a sort of poetic injustice in the fact that 'The Greatest Showman,' the new musical... based on the life of P. T. Barnum, the long-famed 'Prince of Humbug,' should be largely fabricated out of synthetic cloth". The Smithsonian magazine published "P.T. Barnum isn't the hero the 'Greatest Showman' wants you to think", highlighting that "his path to fame and notoriety began by exploiting an enslaved woman, in life and in death, as entertainment for the masses". The Smithsonian refers to Barnum's first theatrical foray in 1835, where he exhibited an African-American slave woman named Joice Heth and claimed she had raised George Washington and was 161 years old, while she was actually in her late 70s. At the time, owning slaves in New York was illegal, but Barnum got around this by "renting" Heth. After she died in 1836, Barnum arranged a public autopsy of Heth, for which he charged admission. In her book Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present, Harriet A. Washington included this as an example of the way African Americans were treated as subhuman in terms of medical procedures and testing. Another Barnum hoax was the Fiji mermaid which in reality was the body of a monkey and the tail of a fish stitched together. Barnum's shows were also notorious for the cruelty inflicted on the animals, which resulted in the death of at least two whales. Rhoda Roberts, arts director of the Sydney Opera House, criticized the film for not addressing that Barnum coerced and kidnapped native peoples to perform in human zoos as a form of entertainment.

In addition to leaving out many aspects of Barnum's career, the people and events depicted in the movie were heavily fictionalized. The two lead characters, Phillip Carlyle and Anne Wheeler, were completely fictional. The character of Jenny Lind is portrayed as a glamorous woman who becomes infatuated with Barnum and, when he does not respond to her overtures, quits the show. In her final performance, she lured Barnum out to the stage for a public kiss in an attempt to flame rumors about their romance. In reality, Lind dressed plainly and was known for her charitable donations both in her home country and to various charities in the United States. Neither Lind nor Barnum displayed any romantic interest in each other. Lind found Barnum to be crude, and Barnum was more interested in money than romance. Lind broke off her successful tour with Barnum early because she was unhappy with Barnum's marketing.

Stage adaptations

The Greatest Showman

In August 2024, the Disney Theatrical Group announced at the D23 fan convention that a stage musical adaptation of the film was in development, making it the company's first stage adaptation of a 20th Century Fox film. The production was directed by Casey Nicholaw from a libretto by Tim Federle adapted from the film's screenplay. It includes all the songs from the film, in addition to five new songs written by Pasek and Paul.

On March 5, 2025, it was confirmed that the show would premiere in the Bristol Hippodrome in Spring 2026. In August 2026, Disney Theatrical Group announced that musical is scheduled to open in the spring of 2027 at Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

Come Alive! The Greatest Showman Circus Spectacular

Come Alive! The Greatest Showman Circus Spectacular is a theatre performance based on the film, integrating circus and musical theatre elements and described as a "circus spectacular". A run in London's West End began in 2024, and an Australian tour in 2026.

Possible sequel

In September 2019, a sequel for the film was already in development, with Jackman confirmed to reprise his role.

However, the sequel's future is now uncertain after Disney chose to end a distribution deal for Chernin Entertainment's films by 20th Century Fox in early 2020.

In September 2022, Jackman stated that he was still interested in a sequel being produced if both companies could come to an agreement.