The Musical genre in films often have a much broader target audience than one would think. Musicals that are composed by musicians such as Alan Menken or Stephen Sondheim tend to be much more well known by the average person rather than one by Bob Fosse or Galt MacDermot. This is because Menken and Sondheim musicals are often based off of already well known stories and produced by companies like Disney. These movies will have their target audience be children, and often are the types of movies that are continuously shown as the viewer gets older, and then are shown to the viewers children and gets passed down for generations.
Movies like Les Misérables directed by Tom Hooper grossed over $442 million at box office, and Chicago grossed about $306 million. These movie-musicals target older audiences to understand the plot and are often favored by Musical-Theatre fans rather than the average 11-year-old-kid.
Often, movie-musicals include very specific numbers to keep the audience engaged. For example, Little Shop of Horrors is a movie-musical from 1986 that is still very popular today. The opening number (Little Shop of Horrors) is a showstopping classic number that everyone that knows the movie is familiar with. The main characters (Seymore and Audrey) work at a flower shop. They sing the classic "I want song" (Skid Row & Grow for Me) where every character hopes to get out of the downtown slums. Typically, there is one antagonist of every show, but sometimes there will be multiple. In Little Shop there is the main antagonist (Audrey II) and the supporting antagonist (Orin). There is also often a love story between the lead characters, followed by a love song (Suddenly Seymore). To keep continuity and musical storytelling, there are also often reprises and repeats. Along with this is a showstopping number (Skid Row) and a finale (Don't Feed the Plants).
A Musicals genre narrative can really go anywhere, since the only rule is there must be multiple numbers sung by the cast. This range can go from horror (Sweeney Todd), romance (The Last Five Years), and historical (Hamilton).
Productions following the Musical genre will always need a composer and/or lyricist, unless they decide to make a jukebox musical (Mamma Mia, Moulin Rouge). All sorts of different lighting and shot techniques are used for musicals, too. Often, if there is a large dance number, long shots and extreme long shots are used to get all dancers in the frame (
Seize the Day, Newsies). The sound in Musicals is always very important, since there needs to be seamless transitions from dialogue to song. Lighting and Closeups are often used to focus on whoever is singing in a particular song (
The Other Side, The Greatest Showman).

Rent, A modern rock musical, is known for taking a step away from the classic musical look. It takes place in New York City. It follows Mark, a filmmaker who is documenting a year, starting at Christmas. This story has many ups and downs and shows a realistic life of a New Yorker who isn't incredibly wealthy. Marks friends Roger, Benny, Collins, Angel, Mimi, Maureen, and Joanne, all have crucial roles in his life. Everything shown on screen is meant to be everything Mark captures on his camera at some point. This was a game changer for the musical world since it took such a different approach to not only the plotline, but the music itself too. The rock musical style started with Hair: The Musical, and was made popular by Rent.
Marketing for Musicals often utilize the opening number, or showstopping number. For posters, the main characters are often used to create a design to best represent the basis of the whole show while using basic graphics and the main characters that keep the show memorable and easily recognizable.
Chicago: The Musical
In The Heights
13 : The Musical