Wicked: For Good Opens with Huge 223 Million Worldwide
To the surprise of no one, the epic conclusion of the Wicked adaptation is crushing the box office. Let's dive in.
Universal’s second part of the Wicked adaptation is doing fantastic numbers. It opened with 147 million domestically, way above its predecessor opening (112.5 million). Overseas, the movie opened with 76 million, for a worldwide opening of 223 million. All of that on a budget of 150 million (the two movies combined cost around 300 million). This is another huge win for Universal, as well for musical movies. Oh, it’s also the highest opening weekend for a Broadway adaptation.
Kudos for director Jon M. Chu, Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, and everyone involved. My biggest question is about the box office legs. The first movie had amazing legs at the domestic box office, where it finished with 475 million. I don’t think this one will have the same legs, simply because usually sequels open bigger than their predecessor, but ultimately way more frontload. And the reviews are actually not as great as the first movie (68% on Rotten Tomatoes, 58 on Metacritic vs 88% on Rotten Tomatoes ,73 on Metacritic). But, the audience scores are amazing. The movie received an “A” on CinemaScore, the same as the first movie, which indicates that the audience really loved it, so it might have some great legs after all.
While there is some improvement with the overseas numbers, it seems that once again this movie will be very domestic-heavy. The first movie grossed only 284 million at the overseas box office, and I’m pretty sure that if those numbers were better, that movie might have joined the billion club. It’s actually too early to know where exactly this movie will end its box office run (we’ll have a better idea after the second weekend), but I think it can match the original (759 million) and perhaps even cross the 800 million.
Universal actually made a huge gamble, and it paid off. This is not unlike Lord of the Rings, where the studio decided to gamble and shoot all three movies back-to-back, to release them every December. Here you have a studio deciding to film both parts back-to-back, a huge gamble these days, and it really worked. Like Lord of the Rings (and Dune), you can clearly feel the passion of the cast and the crew, and above all, the director’s vision.
I wonder what will happen with the franchise next. They are already thinking about how to extend the franchise, so there are lots of possibilities. Maybe they will decide to make their own version of The Wizard of Oz, or maybe even loosely adapt the sequel novel, Son of a Witch. I think the most reasonable possibility is an original idea set in the Wicked Universe. As of now, it’s too early to know how the franchise will continue, but we should all celebrate this incredible win.