History Trivia / TheWiz

* PlayingAgainstType: Directing variant. Creator/SidneyLumet is the last person you'd expect to direct a musical....and it shows.

* AcclaimedFlop: The film did terribly in theaters, being panned by critics and only making $13.6 million worldwide against a production budget of $24 million. What led to the acclaim was after the film came out on VHS in the early 1980s (and again in the 1990s), and was also aired often on many Black-focused stations such as BET.[[note]]The film often aired near Thanksgiving, since this was when the early scenes of the movie were set with Dorothy's family.[[/note]] This led Black audiences to discover or rediscover the musical, now having access to see the show on VHS (when they might not have been able to go to live theater or wouldn't have seen it in theaters). Many Black people came to adore it despite the flaws due to the Black-led cast, popular songs from the accessible soundtrack including "You Can't Win" as a single, and the popularity of Ross and Jackson in Black culture. Black adults passed the love of a Black-led film with multiple Black movie and music stars to their children and family. Many a black child of the Gen X and early Millennial generations can tell the story about the first time they saw the movie and fell in love with the "Black" Wizard of Oz--some may have even seen ''The Wiz'' before they saw 1939's ''The Wizard of Oz''.

* AcclaimedFlop: The film did terribly in theaters, only making $13.6 million worldwide against a production budget of $24 million. It came out on VHS in the early 1980s (and again in the 1990s) and was also aired often on many Black-focused stations such as BET. This made Black audiences discover or rediscover the musical, having access to the show on VHS when they might not be able to go to live theater. Many Black people came to adore it despite the flaws due to the Black-led cast (and the popularity of Ross and Jackson in Black culture). Many a black child of the Gen X and early Millennial generations can tell the story about the first time they saw the movie and fell in love with the "Black" Wizard of Oz--some may have even saw it before they saw the 1939 version.

* AcclaimedFlop: The film did terribly in theaters, only making $13.6 million worldwide against a production budget of $24 million. However it came out on VHS in the early 1980s (and again in the 1990s) and was also aired on many Black-focused stations such as BET. This made Black audiences rediscover the musical in a way being unable to go to live theater did, and came to adore it despite the flaws due to the positive Black representation it had (and the popularity of Ross and Jackson in Black culture). Many a black child of the Gen X and early Millennial generations can tell the story about the first time they saw the movie and fell in love with the "Black" Wizard of Oz--some may have even saw it before the 1939 version.

* RoleReprise: Tony winner Creator/TedRoss & Creator/MabelKing [[note]] Perhaps best known as Raj's mom on ''Series/WhatsHappening'' [[/note]] reprised their roles from the original run of the musical as the Lion & Evilene respectively.

** Creator/StephanieMills, who played Dorothy in the original Broadway production would've reprised the role for the movie, had Music/DianaRoss not appealed directly to Creator/RobCohen to get the part. The movie also had Creator/JohnBadham, the director of ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'', signed on to direct, until he quit out of disappointment with having to direct such an old Dorothy.

* In addition to Creator/StephanieMills, cast members confirmed to have previously appeared in stage versions of ''The Wiz'' include Creator/DavidAlanGrier (The Wiz in a 2006 La Jolla Playhouse production), Music/QueenLatifah (Dorothy in a high school production), and Shanice Williams (Addaperle in a junior high production).

* OlderThanTheyThink: The idea of the Tin Man's [[SwissArmyTears tears]] waking Dorothy and the Lion from their poppy-induced sleep was originally considered for 1939's ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', but ultimately dropped.

* GenreKiller: According to the Medved Brothers' ''Hollywood Hall of Shame'' book, the movie's box-office performance directly led to the cancellation of several major-studio projects that would have had predominantly black casts. Well into the 1980s, Creator/RichardPryor and Creator/EddieMurphy would be the only black leads that were reliable box-office performers, and that was largely via UncleTomfoolery and SaltAndPepper pairings. It wasn't until ''[[Film/BlackPanther2018 Black Panther]]'' forty years later that Hollywood attempted an all-black tentpole, and it ended up becoming a billion-dollar blockbuster.

* CreatorBacklash: Music/QuincyJones hated the film and the only did it as a favour to Creator/SidneyLumet.

* TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment: To tie-in with the movie, Music/DianaRoss recorded an album titled, ''Diana Ross Sings Songs From The Wiz''. Music/{{Motown}} originally intended to release it about a year after the movie's premiere, but decided against it after the film flopped. It finally saw a digital release in November 2015, exactly one week before the NBC debut of ''The Wiz Live!''

** Eight years before the NBC production of ''The Wiz'', Creator/CraigZadan and Creator/NeilMeron collaborated with both Music/QueenLatifah and Creator/ElijahKelley for the movie version of the ''Film/{{Hairspray}}'' musical. Queen Latifah also worked with Zadan and Meron on ''Film/{{Chicago}}''.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Berry Gordy wanted Stephanie Mills to reprise her role of Dorothy, but Diana Ross wanted the role badly enough she appealed directly to producer Creator/RobCohen to twist his arms into casting her.

* TroubledProduction: The direction and casting led to a lot of the changes that made the film such a drastic departure from the musical; Berry Gordy had Stephanie Mills in mind to play Dorothy, but was ultimately convinced to cast Music/DianaRoss who fought to get the part, which prompted director Creator/JohnBadham to quit out of dissatisfaction, and so Creator/SidneyLumet stepped in to fill the chair. Rounding out the production was Creator/JoelSchumacher, and to accommodate Diana Ross' age rewrote the script to focus on a much older Dorothy living in New York City instead of Kansas. Lumet's inexperience with musicals, combined with these casting and scriptural decisions led to a lot of internal skepticism of the project that was ultimately vindicated when the film failed at the box office.

* ExecutiveMeddling: The producers wanted Stephanie Mills to reprise her role of Dorothy, but Diana Ross wanted the role badly enough she appealed directly to the Universal heads to twist their arms into casting her.

* TroubledProduction: The direction and casting led to a lot of the changes that made the film such a drastic departure from the musical; The producers had Stephanie Mills in mind to play Dorothy, but were ultimately convinced to cast Music/DianaRoss who fought to get the part, which prompted director Creator/JohnBadham to quit out of dissatisfaction, and so Creator/SidneyLumet stepped in to fill the chair. Rounding out the production was Creator/JoelSchumacher, and to accommodate Diana Ross' age rewrote the script to focus on a much older Dorothy living in New York City instead of Kansas. Lumet's inexperience with musicals, combined with these casting and scriptural decisions led to a lot of internal skepticism of the project that was ultimately vindicated when the film failed at the box office.

** Creator/StephanieMills, who played Dorothy in the original Broadway production would've reprised the role for the movie, had Music/DianaRoss not appealed directly to the head of Universal to get the part. The movie also had Creator/JohnBadham, the director of ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'', signed on to direct, until he quit out of disappointment with having to direct such an old Dorothy.

* BoxOfficeBomb: Cost $24,000,000 to make, brought back only $13,600,000 upon release.