The final scene of “Wicked” is a cinematic triumph. A defiant Cynthia Erivo soars through the skies, circling above Oz and belting “Defying Gravity” as her enemies look on in awe. It inspires tears and applause, even sending audiences jumping from their theater seats as Erivo nails those high notes.
But you don’t have to buy a ticket to witness it now. The full four-minute conclusion to the first part of Universal’s smash hit is currently available on social platforms like X and TikTok for free.
That’s because fans can’t seem to stop taking photos and recording full, minutes-long clips of Erivo and her co-star Ariana Grande going toe-to-toe in the Emerald City. Some of this piracy (and make no mistake, that’s what it is) serves to document the feverish embrace of all things “Wicked.” Others are meant to convey other forms of adoration.
There is grainy footage of a moviegoer trying to belt the same notes as Erivo during her big number. There are hundreds of posts of Grande’s performance of “Popular,” another hit from the original musical, where fans praise the pop queen’s comedic chops and dancing ability – many of which are labeled with the banner “Spoiler!” There are also countless videos of a surprise cameo made by Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, who originated the roles of Glinda and Elphaba in the original Broadway production of “Wicked.” These videos and photos have been live and garnering millions of views, and the film has only been in theaters for five full days.
“Wicked” is hardly an exception. Supercuts of all the sex scenes between Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey in A24’s “Queer” have been on X since early September. Shirtless, bloodied Paul Mescal rowing an ancient ship in “Gladiator II” is thirstily posted to TikTok, one that says the movie is “for the girls.”
How is this getting past studios, who are equipped with huge anti-piracy teams and armies of lawyers? For that matter, how is this getting past community guidelines on the social media platforms where copyrighted material is being posted?
“Something has happened post-pandemic where movie theater behavior has really changed,” said one top film executive, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The executive is referring to the younger audiences who have become more emboldened to share this lengthy material from the sanctity of the cineplex, where phones are supposed to be banned.
“They have a different relationship with the material, it’s all just content to them,” sighed the executive, who (along with two other industry sources) pointed to a watershed moment for this kind of behavior. It was the July release of “Deadpool & Wolverine,” Marvel’s superhero mashup which helped rescue the 2024 box office and preserved the A-list luster around Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman.
“Something really happened with that movie,” said the source, specifically pointing to Reynolds and “Deadpool & Wolverine” director Shawn Levy. Both men shared and interacted with social media content pirated from theaters over opening weekend –- many of which featured ecstatic crowds reacting to cameos from Channing Tatum, Wesley Snipes and Jennifer Garner.
A spokesperson for Reynolds did not return requests for comment, and Levy had no comment. A source familiar with Levy’s thinking said he never intentionally shared material shot in theaters and is strongly opposed to piracy. Universal Pictures did not comment on the “Wicked” piracy, but a source with knowledge of the company said internal teams are active in removing the illegal footage in most cases. This conundrum is even more interesting given that “Wicked” is a musical, and one could argue that it’s true value is in show-stopping numbers like “Defying Gravity.” Think back to 2006’s “Dreamgirls,” where filmmakers forbade eventual Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson from performing the torch song “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” on the Academy Awards. The argument? Go buy a ticket if you want your world rocked by her vocals.
Another interesting wrinkle that’s enabling this form of piracy is corporate infrastructure. Filmmakers and cybersecurity experts who spoke with Variety agreed that, while the major studios have anti-piracy teams in place, they have a sole focus: ensuring that full movies do not appear on global torrents, where users can get copies of stolen movies with decent-to-flawless picture and sound quality. These teams are not equipped to play “whack-a-mole,” as one insider put it, across hundreds of thousands of social media posts.
There are even corners of the business that believe this content free-for-all actually encourages moviegoing in younger people. A subgenre of the “Wicked” posts, for instance, is a “Before and After” challenge. Fans take video as they head into a screening, and then again as credits roll and the music of “Defying Gravity” fades out. Their tear-soaked faces and bashful sobs make for great fodder and inspire other users to do the same. One marketing and PR guru who spoke with Variety said this is just the natural evolution of age-old promotional gimmicks, comparing it to filming a preview audience’s faces for an upcoming horror movie so their twisted expressions and screams can be spliced into TV ads.
The Motion Picture Association, which represents the studios’ interests in D.C., had no comment on the matter. In January, Bloomberg reported that the economy suffers around $30 billion in losses per year – and around 250,000 jobs – because of pirated content.
On an experiential level, not everyone is happy to let this guerrilla recording continue. Cinemas have passionate defenders.
“Show your ‘Wicked’ part 1 photos,” one X user wrote on Nov. 23, photographing the film’s title card (which appears in the same font as the original “The Wizard of Oz,” an Easter egg for fans).
The official X account for theater chain Alamo Drafthouse responded to the post, saying “Or, don’t do that.” Others called the move “so illegal.” Screenwriter Nic Curcio commented that “Wicked” is “bringing so many good things into this world, my favorite being the mass public shaming of bad behavior at the movies, baby!”
At the end of “Wicked,” Elphaba may no longer be subject to the laws of physics, but it turns out there are still some social norms you can’t defy.
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