Five hundred million dollars. That’s the magic number.
If the movie version of “Les Misérables” pulls in $500 million or more at the box office, producer Cameron Mackintosh and Universal Pictures will start laying the groundwork for their next musical movie — “Miss Saigon.”
Mackintosh produced “Saigon” on Broadway in 1991. It opened with advance ticket sales of $24 million, which back then was the highest ever for a Broadway show. It made several hundred million dollars in New York alone before ending its run here in 2001.
A modern retelling of “Madama Butterfly,” “Saigon” centers on a doomed love affair between an American soldier and a Vietnamese prostitute. Their story is set against the backdrop of the fall of Saigon.
The musical was written by the “Les Miz” team — composer Claude-Michel Schönberg and librettist Alain Boublil — with an assist from lyricist Richard Maltby Jr.
Mackintosh started thinking about turning the musical into a movie back in 2009. It would be shot, he told friends, on location in Cambodia and Ho Chi Minh City.
But Mackintosh threw himself into the “Les Miz” film first, which means that the fate of “Miss Saigon, the Movie” now hinges on the success of a bunch of scab-ridden, downtrodden Frenchies.
Early indications are that “Les Miz,” which opens Christmas Day, should do quite nicely at the box office. It picked up several Golden Globe nominations earlier this week and will certainly be a contender for a number of Oscars.
And it’s definitely put Mackintosh, 66, back in the arena.
Friends say they haven’t seen him this excited about a project in years. He’s jetting all over the place, chatting up the movie in Tokyo, New York, Sydney and Los Angeles.
The most successful producer in Broadway history — “Cats,” “Phantom,” “Les Miz” — Mackintosh’s seemingly bottomless well ran a bit dry after “Saigon.” Subsequent musicals — “Martin Guerre,” “The Witches of Eastwick,” a revival of “Oklahoma!” — were duds. He had a hit with “Mary Poppins,” co-produced with Disney, but I don’t think that show has anywhere near the artistry and power of “Phantom” or “Les Miz.”
Mackintosh bought several West End theaters, lovingly restoring them to their 19th-century splendor. But he was spending more and more time on his yacht off the coast of Malta or at his castle in Scotland, and there was talk that this showbiz dynamo was enjoying a more relaxed life.
And then — lights, camera, action! — Broadway’s greatest producer discovered Hollywood.
Actually, says one of his friends, “he discovered the editing room.”
The control the editing room gave him over “Les Misérables” proved irresistible to a producer famous for overseeing everything on his shows, from the poster art to the interest on the advance sale.
“Cameron loves to meddle,” says a writer who’s worked with him several times. “And he can meddle and meddle and meddle away for hours in the editing room.”
I visited Mackintosh in September at his elegant offices in London’s Bedford Square. The place was buzzing with activity, all centered on the “Les Miz” movie. Schönberg was fiddling with the sound track, marketers were talking about the ad campaign, party planners were organizing the lavish London premiere.
At the center of this whirlwind was Mackintosh himself, clad in a T-shirt and jeans and trying to get everything done before dashing to the airport to catch a plane to Los Angeles.
He was in a jolly mood and regaled me with tales of his early years in the theater. Nobody tells a gossipy anecdote better. When he got carried away with a story, he jumped up from the sofa and acted out all the players in the drama.
The fabled impresario was back in the trenches, and I could tell he was having one hell of a time.