King of Jazz - Response

Response

Universal expected this revue to repeat or surpass the box-office performance of a musical entitled Broadway which it had released in 1929. That lavish film had included Technicolor sequences and had been a success. Unfortunately, delays in beginning the actual filming of King of Jazz caused its release to occur after two unforeseen developments. First, the public had tired of the flood of movie musicals that began as a slow trickle with The Jazz Singer in late 1927 and rapidly became a torrent after the success of The Broadway Melody in early 1929. In particular disfavor were operettas set in bygone eras, musical-comedies which were unimaginatively filmed Broadway stage productions, and plotless "revues" such as King of Jazz. Second, although the ripple effects from the stock market crash in October 1929 had not yet produced the full-blown depression which would soon be painfully obvious, people were already spending less freely and the effects were starting to be felt at the box-office. During its national release, King of Jazz cleared less than $900,000. Around Hollywood, the movie came to be called "Universal's Rhapsody in the Red". Because of poor box-office receipts for the film and the cancellation of his lucrative nationally-broadcast radio program by its sponsor in April 1930, Whiteman had to let ten bandmembers go and cut the salaries of the remaining bandmembers by fifteen percent.

Overseas, where there was never a backlash against musicals, it fared better and eventually made a profit. During the 1930s, the film found its best audience in Cape Town, South Africa, where it played seventeen return engagements.

The film won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction by Herman Rosse. Other films nominated in this category were Bulldog Drummond, The Love Parade, Sally and The Vagabond King.