Broadway musical theater fans can breathe a sigh of relief as the Hollywood box office grosses have revealed that the new Les Miserables movie had a very strong opening day. The 2nd highest ranking Christmas Day opening of all time, Les Miserables earned $18.1 million on its first day in movie theaters, drawing out holiday audiences eager to see Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe go head-to-head on the big screen. The film has also enjoyed a largely positive critical response, currently at 73% positive on RottenTomatoes.com.

While Broadway fans have flooded message boards with reviews of the movie adaptation of the beloved musical, the movie’s great box office performance can be counted as a plus for most Broadway fans whether they like Les Miz or not, because when a new Hollywood movie musical does well it bodes well for future film musicals. There is already buzz that Les Miz‘s success means there will soon be a screen adaptation of Miss Saigon, the other major musical success by Les Miz‘s songwriting team, Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil.