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With an impressive budget, some serious Hollywood star power, cute teen boys, and a score by prolific Disney composer, Alan Menkin, it appeared that Newsies had all of the necessary ingredients to conjure up box-office success. But all of these factors couldn’t change the fact that a musical based on the newsboy strike of 1899 just didn’t strike the right chord with young filmgoers - at least not initially.

Newsies told the story of a group of street urchins who made their living hawking newspapers on the streets of New York City at the turn of the century. When newspaper magnates William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer (Robert Duvall) raise the prices of their wares, the boys quickly see their profits dwindle and strike back at the big conglomerates.

Leading the fight is Jack Kelly, a kid who has recently escaped from Juvenile Hall. He assembles a team of cohorts including Boots, Snitch, Mush and Crushy to help him fight the good fight and the tykes find some unexpected help from a beautiful dance hall performer named Medda Larkson (Ann Margret) and newspaper reporter Bryan Denton (Bill Pullman.) With the power of numbers, they take on the entire industry – all while finding plenty of time for song and dance routines along the way.

Even with the help of director/choreographer Kenny Ortega, who had found previous success with films like Dirty Dancing and music offerings by Alan Menkin, who had written the score for Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid, Newsies just couldn’t win over moviegoers and the film was ranked as one of the highest costing/lowest grossing films to ever be produced. And yet, over the years, subsequent VHS and DVD releases have managed to give the film a small, if respectable, cult following. And word on the street is that plans are in development for a Broadway production based on the film. You read it here first.