Musicals aren’t the most successful genre at the box office (see: “Cats,” “Dear Evan Hansen” and “Joker: Folie à Deux”). But song-and-dance films may be enjoying — as Glinda sings — a newfound popularity with “Wicked,” Universal’s adaptation of Act One of the beloved Broadway show.
The film collected $114 million in North America and an additional $50.2 million internationally, bringing its global tally to $165 million over the weekend. It’s a huge win for movie theaters (ticket sales have been stubbornly behind 2023 and pre-pandemic times) and Universal (since the studio has to sell “Wicked: Part Two,” chronicling the musical’s second act, to audiences in 2025). Each installment cost $150 million to produce, not including its inescapable pink-and-green marketing campaign. So “Wicked” needs to resonate at the global box office through Thanksgiving of next year to justify these mega price tags. Then “thank goodness,” as Glinda also sings in the show, that critical reviews and audience sentiment have been euphoric.
Jon M. Chu directed the PG “Wicked,” which stars Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh and Jonathan Bailey. Set before during and after “The Wizard of Oz,” the story tells the origins of Grande’s Glinda (later known as Glinda the Good), Erivo’s Elphaba (eventually dubbed the Wicked Witch of the West) before Dorothy landed in Oz and sauntered down the Yellow Brick Road.
Here’s all the records from opening weekend:
Domestic
- Biggest opening weekend for film based on a Broadway adaption, ahead of “Into The Woods” ($31.05 million)
- Third best debut of 2024 ahead of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ($111 million) and behind “Deadpool & Wolverine” ($211 million) and “Inside Out 2” ($154 million)
- Fourth largest start in history a musical, surpassing Disney’s 2023 “The Little Mermaid” remake ($95.57 million) and trailing “Frozen II” ($130 million)
International
- Biggest opening for film based on a Broadway adaption in both reported and like-for-like markets ahead of 2012’s “Les Miserables”
- Sixth-best debut of all time for a musical, above “Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again” ($43 million)
Global
- Biggest opening weekend for film based on a Broadway adaption, overtaking “Les Miserables” ($103 million)
- Best start for a non-sequel film in 2024
- Fifth-largest debut in history for a musical ahead of 2023’s “The Little Mermaid” ($163.6 million) and behind only 2019’s “The Lion King” ($446 million), 2017’s “Beauty and the Beast” ($358 million), “Frozen 2” ($358 million) and 2019’s “Aladdin” ($213 million).
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