I was frankly surprised to see Phantom come out as a movie after Evita bombed so badly. And it's not that I think either one was bad- -- they were frankly excellent (noone was more surprised than I was to see that Madonna really CAN sing if she wants to
)
But unless you're in to musical theater, those movies just won't appeal to you, so the fact that Evita bombed is a good indicator that the majority of the population isn't all that in to musicals.
Which is kind of a shame because there are some excellent more modern ones out there. Les Mis for one.