The movie version of "Wicked" turned out to be wonderful in its first weekend of release, topping the box office with ease. The filmmakers know what this feeling is: It's massive, record-breaking success.
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00:00The movie version of Wicked turned out to be wonderful in its first weekend of release,
00:04topping the box office with ease.
00:06The filmmakers know what this feeling is — its massive, record-breaking success.
00:10Frankly, the writing was on the wall for Wicked long before the movie even came out.
00:15According to Box Office Pro, shortly after tickets officially went on sale in October
00:192024, the movie broke a few records.
00:22It became the third-best PG-rated ticket seller on its first day ever, behind only Frozen
00:272 and the live-action Lion King adaptation.
00:30By the time the film hit theaters, Deadline composed a list of all the box office records
00:34it absolutely smashed to smithereens.
00:36Not only can it boast the biggest opening for any movie based on a Broadway musical,
00:40Ariana Grande can now say she's got the biggest movie opening of any pop star ever.
00:45Wicked also set a record for money made from previews alone — a whopping $19.2 million.
00:51Wicked earned $112 million domestically during its opening weekend, and its combined domestic
00:55and international haul totaled $162 million.
00:59That makes it the third-biggest opening of 2024, behind only Deadpool and Wolverine and
01:03Inside Out 2.
01:05Never underestimate the power of theater kids.
01:08While there are probably some Wicked newbies who went to see the film adaptation out of
01:11sheer curiosity, musical theater nerds have been waiting for this movie for years.
01:16Seriously, the movie was first announced in 2012 and went through a truly staggering number
01:20of delays, including a very long one thanks to COVID-19.
01:24Considering that the Broadway show kicked off all the way back in 2003, fans were primed
01:28and ready to show up to support the film opening weekend.
01:31Anyone who dabbled in the theater kid lifestyle in middle or high school probably went through
01:35a massive Wicked obsession, and for many, it hasn't faded.
01:39The movie was always going to be a success thanks to a built-in audience full of people
01:42who dreamed of belting Defying Gravity in front of a packed audience.
01:46"...are people born wicked?
01:48Oh!
01:51Or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?"
01:54Author Gregory Maguire's original novel is pretty dark.
01:57In their musical adaptation, Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holtzman made the wise choice to
02:01lighten things up to tell the origin story of Elphaba Thropp, the magical green girl
02:05who goes on to become the Wicked Witch of the West.
02:07By adding in some much-needed levity and campiness, Schwartz and Holtzman made Wicked into a full-on
02:12cultural phenomenon.
02:13The stage version's original, extraordinary lead performers, Idina Menzel and Kristen
02:18Chenoweth, helped a lot, too.
02:20Wicked is still one of the highest-grossing musicals in Broadway history, and it earned
02:23a handful of Tony nominations to boot.
02:26Productions of Wicked still play on stages all over the world, decades after it first
02:30came out.
02:31Frankly, it's one of the most successful, long-running, and beloved musicals of all
02:35time.
02:36Of course it was going to make a boatload of money at the box office.
02:39For a certain generation of people, Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth are the platonic
02:43ideals of Elphaba and Galinda.
02:45Or maybe some fans love whatever actors they saw perform the roles when they saw the show
02:49live at some point.
02:50But Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are giving everyone else a run for their money.
02:55As Elphaba, Erivo brings some gravity to the role of a young girl whose green skin makes
02:59her an outcast.
03:00And to say Grande is outstanding as Galinda turned Glinda is an understatement.
03:04She runs away with the film so hard that it's actually breathtaking.
03:08The supporting cast is also a murderer's row of talented folks.
03:11No, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, and Bowen Yang aren't the strongest singers, but they
03:15turn in great performances, while the rest of the central performers are Broadway veterans.
03:20Newcomer Marissa Bode, who makes history as the first disabled actress to play Elphaba's
03:23sister Nessa Rose, shows off an impressive voice honed thanks to years in small productions.
03:28As Bach, Ethan Slater, known for the SpongeBob SquarePants musical, gets a moment front and
03:33center to prove why he earned a Tony nomination.
03:36Jonathan Bailey, an Olivier recipient for a 2019 production of Company in the West End,
03:40might be known more for Bridgerton these days, but his dancing and singing prove pretty
03:44extraordinary as Fiyero.
03:46Menzel and Chenoweth also cameo in the giant ensemble number One Short Day, chronicling
03:50Elphaba and Galinda's arrival in Oz.
03:53The success of Wicked depended heavily on its cast, and it was thankfully cast perfectly.
03:58Ever since Barbie turned the world pink in the summer of 2023, studios have tried to
04:02recapture the magic of that movie's marketing blitz.
04:05Until Wicked, nobody really succeeded.
04:07Universal Pictures really went for it, and as a result, pink and green products have
04:11been everywhere recently.
04:13For just one example, Stanley, maker of those inescapable giant water cups, is offering
04:17pink and green versions, so you can channel your inner witch while you hydrate, and partnering
04:22with Target to sell them.
04:23But there are lots more examples.
04:25Target has a whole Wicked section.
04:27Naturally, Ariana Grande's makeup company, R.E.M.
04:30Beauty, released a Wicked-inspired line.
04:32I cannot wait for you to see how beautiful and magical they are."
04:36Clothing retailer Forever 21 released glittery jerseys bearing Elphaba and Galinda's names.
04:41Shea Mitchell's luggage line, Base Travel, released green and pink cute suitcases and
04:45weekender bags.
04:46Oreos changed their fillings to green and pink.
04:49Rice Krispie Treats added green and pink sprinkles to their signature sweets.
04:53All the while, Grande and Erivo have been donning Elphaba- and Galinda-inspired outfits
04:57for some time now.
04:58Notably, their outfits for the 2024 Met Gala were definitely giving Galinda and Elphaba.
05:03This isn't to say that just because a marketing campaign is absolutely enormous — and perhaps
05:07even inescapable — that a movie will be automatically successful.
05:11Yet it pretty clearly worked for Wicked.
05:13Whether or not Grande sold all that many Wicked eyeshadow palettes through R.E.M. is basically
05:17immaterial at this point.
05:19Nobody could possibly forget Wicked was coming to theaters thanks to the wild marketing blitz.
05:24Social media has been going absolutely wild over Wicked memes, whether they're referencing
05:28the actual movie or the increasingly emotional press tour.
05:32With all due respect to Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, they sure have been crying
05:36a lot while they promote the movie, which has, for better or for worse, led to some
05:39insanely viral moments.
05:41For instance, there's the moment where Out magazine reporter Tracy E. Gilchrist, on the
05:45verge of tears herself, explained to Erivo and Grande that she had heard people were
05:48holding space for the lyrics of Defying Gravity.
05:51Erivo is clearly deeply moved.
05:53That's really powerful.
05:56That's why I want it.
05:59Grande, ostensibly reaching for her co-star and friend's hand, grabs Erivo's index finger
06:03instead.
06:04It's a perfect combination of completely absurd and strikingly emotional.
06:08In the aftermath, it seems everyone has been holding space for the lyrics of the show-stopping
06:12number.
06:13Sure, this sounds silly, but there's no question that viral moments like these have contributed
06:16to the overall success of the film.
06:19Whether it was Erivo lashing out at a version of the poster edited by a fan, to the many,
06:23many instances where Grande and Erivo burst into tears during interviews, the Wicked press
06:27tour will live in infamy.
06:29And it'll end up happening all over again for the second half of the movie, which comes
06:33out a year after the first.
06:34But there's a lot of emotional things that happen, and we're just going with it.
06:38Director Jon M. Chu has come a long way from sequels like Step Up 2 The Streets and Step
06:43Up 3D.
06:44In 2016, Chu was chosen to helm a bigger sequel, Now You See Me 2, but his biggest film by
06:49far came two years later in 2018, when he adapted Kevin Kwan's hit novel Crazy Rich
06:54Asians for the big screen.
06:55Not only did Crazy Rich Asians make huge strides in Hollywood by featuring a predominantly
06:59Asian cast, but it made a ton of money at the box office.
07:03Chu's film became the highest-grossing studio romantic comedy in a decade and the sixth-highest
07:07grossing movie across that entire genre.
07:10And when all was said and done, it earned a stunning $234 million at the worldwide box
07:15office based on a budget of just $30 million.
07:18Despite the film's outstanding box office performance, outlets like Deadline estimated
07:22that the movie's profit totaled $120 million.
07:26Unfortunately for Chu, his next movie — and first Broadway adaptation — didn't fare
07:30as well.
07:31In 2021, Chu's take on Lin-Manuel Miranda's first Tony winner, In the Heights, hit theaters
07:36and Macs simultaneously, and thanks to a large budget and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,
07:41it wildly underperformed at the box office with an estimated gross of roughly $45 million.
07:46This doesn't seem like a fair metric for Chu, though, considering the worldwide pandemic
07:50and the film's immediate streaming release.
07:52So the lesson we can learn from Wicked is that when Chu directs an epic spectacle, it
07:56does well at the box office.
07:58Everyone knows that all of the good prestige films come out starting around Thanksgiving,
08:02particularly family-friendly releases, so the simple fact that Wicked took advantage
08:06of the holidays certainly didn't hurt its box office chances.
08:10November is a really good month to put out a hit movie, and one that's fresh in the minds
08:14of award show voters.
08:15So what about that awards chatter?
08:17A movie like Wicked is basically tailor-made for multiple Golden Globe nominations, and
08:21it seems pretty likely that Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande will end up competing against
08:25one another in the acting category for lead actress in a comedy or musical.
08:29The Oscars aren't out of the question, either.
08:31Grande could potentially score a supporting actress nod for her unbelievably precise,
08:35lived-in, and sharp performance as Galinda, and it also seems quite possible that the
08:39movie could crack the Best Picture category.
08:41We're doing the doubleheaders.
08:42We're doing Oppenheimer and Barbie today.
08:44If Barbie had Oppenheimer as the yin to its yang when it hit theaters in the summer of
08:482023, Wicked shared a release weekend with a similarly testosterone-fueled movie, Ridley
08:53Scott's long-awaited sequel, Gladiator 2.
08:56Some fans opted for a Barbenheimer-style double feature, an idea dubbed Glickid on social
09:01media, but Wicked didn't have to compete directly against Gladiator 2.
09:05The audiences for these films are pretty radically different, and if there is any overlap, people
09:10interested in both buzzy projects very likely saw both movies during their joint opening
09:14weekend.
09:15Not having another film directed squarely at a female audience as direct competition
09:19was certainly a boon for Wicked, and even though Glickid never really hit the heights
09:23reached by Barbenheimer, it still contributed to the success of Wicked in the end.
09:28Even before it officially hit movie theaters, Wicked garnered pretty solid reviews, including
09:32from Looper's own Cynthia Vinny.
09:34As of this video, the film has a healthy 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with a critical
09:38consensus that reads,
09:40Defying gravity with its magical pairing of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, Wicked's
09:44sheer bravura and charm make for an irresistible invitation to Oz.
09:48Reviews universally praise the film's world-building and scale, Erivo and Grande's captivating
09:53central performances, and the way the film captures the essence and feel of the original
09:57Broadway show.
09:58The fact that Wicked is a critical and commercial darling should make Jon M. Chu and his cast
10:02and crew very proud, and it could be a good omen for Wicked Part II, which hits theaters
10:07on November 21st, 2025.