Music was in the air on July 20, 1965. The Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” was at the top of the charts, Bob Dylan’s iconic ballad “Like a Rolling Stone” came out that very day, and at the movies, a musical continued to dominate the box office months after its initial premiere.
“The Sound of Music” was a sensation unlike many others in the history of cinema. Opening in March of 1965, its theatrical run lasted a staggering four and a half years, over which time it became the biggest box office success of its era. Today, its domestic box office performance remains the third-highest ever after adjusting for inflation, behind only “Star Wars” and “Gone with the Wind.” And when you look worldwide, the film doubled that money.
By mid-July of 1965, “The Sound of Music” was already well on its way to becoming the biggest live-action movie musical of all time. But what was it that made this particular film such an enormous hit?
The Sound of Music was a perfect storm
We have to talk about the cast of “The Sound of Music” first when addressing what made it such a success, and while Christopher Plummer and all the kids play their parts admirably, this is an instance where the leading lady is truly the star of the show. Julie Andrews is a powerhouse here, turning in a career-defining performance in a career defined by so many of them. Her turn as Maria is timeless, charming, emotional, and a vehicle for a voice that launched a thousand road trip sing-a-longs.
Despite that, the film opened to less than stellar reviews, many of which criticized it as overly corny and sentimental. The film was also based on a stage musical of the same name, so it wasn’t exactly an unknown quantity when it first hit the big screen. And yet the movie went supernova, for reasons that seemed mysterious even in its day. “We’ve played the ‘let’s analyze “The Sound of Music”‘ game many times,” British composer and lyricist Leslie Bricusse told The New York Times in 1966, as part of a breakdown of the film’s sweeping success. In the same piece, 20th Century Fox VP Richard Zanuck said, “If we knew the answer to that, we’d know the answer to a lot of things.”
It’s hard to fully explain how you catch lightning in a bottle. Andrews’ charisma, catchy songs, a whole-family-friendly tone, and the beautiful locations where “The Sound of Music” was filmed all surely played a role, but at some point, it pushed on by the steam of its own momentum — a cinematic tour de force unlike anything before or since.
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