Sometimes you can predict ahead of time if a movie is going to perform well in theaters, and other times there are movies that manage to completely surprise critically and/or commercially. One of the latter from last year's theatrical offerings was The Greatest Showman, which saw Hugh Jackman playing P.T. Barnum in a musical adaptation of Barnum forming his famed circus. In the six months since The Greatest Showman's release, it's built up an impressive fanbase, so much so that students at the Mitton Manor Primary School in Glasgow, Scotland recently performed some of the movie's tunes on stage, and Jackman sent a special message wishing them good luck.
Rather than perform the entire Greatest Showman story, the Mitton Manor students sang a few songs from the blockbuster musical, and according to BBC, there was an emphasis on "This is Me," arguably the biggest song from the movie. Ahead of the performance, the teachers decided to tweet Hugh Jackman to see if they could get his attention. Eventually they were successful, and while the actor was unable to see the children perform in person, he did shoot the above video to offer his support and give some valuable words of wisdom from The Greatest Showman. Judging by the accompanying response, it sounds like Jackman will get to see soon enough how the little ones did in front of their school assembly.
Having been in development for nearly a decade, The Greatest Showman finally opened to the masses last December, with Hugh Jackman's co-stars including Zac Efron, Zendaya, Michelle Williams and Rebecca Ferguson. While the movie earned a mixed critical reception, commercially it's performed excellently, making $433 million worldwide off an $84 million budget. The Greatest Showman subsequently earned numerous accolades, which included "This is Me" winning a Golden Globe for Best Original Song in a Motion Picture and being nominated for an Academy Award. While such a movie isn't prime material for earning a sequel, there has been talk recently about the potential for The Greatest Showman becoming a Broadway musical. If that happens, given Jackman's stage background and assuming he doesn't have any movies to work on, I wouldn't be surprised if he reprised P.T. Barnum for some of the opening stage performances.
You can now watch The Greatest Showman in the comfort of your own home on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD. Hugh Jackman can next be seen U.S. Senator Gary Hart in The Front Runner, and he's also being eyed for a role in Bad Education. If you're interested in learning what movies are arriving in theaters later this year, look through our 2018 premiere guide for release date information.
