For Good’ Opens to Massive $226M, Crushing the Original’s $164.2M Weekend

The Universal Pictures two-part “Wicked” film series just keeps breaking all the odds in box office earnings. Only last year did part one draw enough fans to movie theaters across the nation, and yet even more fans purchased tickets for opening screenings of “Wicked: For Good.”

According to estimates from studios on Sunday, “Wicked: For Good” brought in $150 million from North American box offices in its early days of release and $226 million worldwide.

It not only holds the biggest opening in history for a musical adaptation to occur on Broadway yet, breaking the first film’s opening of $112 million, but it’s also the second biggest opening of this year just behind ‘A Minecraft Movie’s’ $162 million.

Universal started releasing “Wicked: For Good” in theaters across America earlier in the week, showing up in preview screenings Monday ($6.1 million from 1,050 theaters) and Wednesday ($6.5 million from 2,300 theaters). “Wicked” had expanded to 4,115 theaters across North America by Friday and had grossed $68.6 million by then. Of this amount, $15.5 million grossed from IMAX screenings, comprising 11% of Universal’s domestic box office. It set a new November record for Universal.

“Our momentum carries into demos and genres beyond our traditional core, including families,” Imax CEO Rich Gelfond said in a statement acknowledging its strong market presence.

Once again, women were integral to opening weekend success, comprising about 71% of viewers according to PostTrak audience exits. While reaction from critics to the third installment may have been mixed, response from viewers certainly wasn’t; fully 83% told PostTrak it’s definitely one they would “definitely recommend” to their friends.

The two ‘Wicked’ movies were directed by Jon M. Chu and starred Cynthia Ervio and Ariana Grande. The first movie broke over $758.7 million and had 10 Oscar nominations (winning two awards related to costume and production design). The challenge now is what heights ‘Wicked: For Good’ can reach. The cost of both movies to be produced sums up to approximately $300 million.

Two other wide releases were shown this past weekend but were further down in the charts ranking from among the holdovers. Searchlight Pictures distributed its Brendan Fraser title “Rental Family” in 1,925 theaters. The Finnish action movie “Sisu: Road to Revenge,” distributed by Sony, was shown in 2,222 theaters.

While this past weekend saw something of a winner-takes-all situation as far as box office revenue went, it’s clear and obvious that “Wicked: For Good”’s success not only helps their particular movie but means absolutely everything to the rest of the exhibition industry as they head towards the end of the year.

The Thanksgiving blockbusters cannot come soon enough following such a weak fall season. Next week to follow will be “Zootopia 2.”

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