There was no place like the movie theater for fans of “Wicked” this weekend.
Universal’s “Wicked: For Good” soared to No. 1 at the weekend box office, earning $150 million domestically and $226 million worldwide — far outpacing its predecessor, “Wicked,” which opened to $114 million domestically during last year’s pre-Thanksgiving weekend.
“It’s never a guarantee that a second installment will outperform an original, especially on the opening weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore. “The first film, and now this movie … created a cultural phenomenon. This was not an overnight success.”
The musical fantasy film, which is a retelling inspired by the 1900 children’s novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” became the second-highest domestic opener of the year, behind Warner Bros. Pictures’ live-action “A Minecraft Movie” ($162.75 million) and ahead of Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch” ($146 million). Warner Bros. Discovery is the parent company of celebrity.land.
“Wicked: For Good” also broke a record for a fantasy-adventure sequel opening, according to David A. Gross, who publishes industry newsletter FranchiseRe. Such movies average an opening of $46 million, according to Gross.
“The fact that ‘Wicked’ is up there in the conversation is a triumph … it’s not very long ago when a lot of musicals were not performing well at the box office,” said Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of analytics firm Box Office Theory.
Also opening this weekend was Searchlight Pictures’ “Rental Family” ($3.3 million), which was No. 5 overall, and Sony Pictures’ “Sisu: Road to Revenge” ($2.6 million), which was No. 6. The two films failed to share the same success of “Gladiator II,” which had a domestic opening weekend box office of $55.5 million when it opened alongside “Wicked.”
Last weekend’s competitors, Lionsgate Films’ “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” ($9.1 million), Disney’s “Predator: Badlands” ($6.25 million) and Paramount Pictures’ “The Running Man” ($5.8 million) finished No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4, respectively.
It’s a good sign for Hollywood, which is coming off a historically slow October. The overall box office is now 3.3% ahead of last year’s earnings from January 1 to November 23, according to Comscore data. The domestic box office has grossed roughly $7.5 billion this year, according to Comscore.
Dergarabedian noted that the box office could hit or exceed the $9 billion mark when the year ends. That milestone was previously reached in 2023, the first post-pandemic year to do so.
More of a boost can come on Thanksgiving weekend with Disney’s “Zootopia 2,” which hopes to see similar success from last year’s “Moana 2,” an animated film that grossed over $460 million at the domestic box office.
“Zootopia 2” and “Wicked: For Good” could complement one another at movie theaters, says Daniel Loria, editorial director at Box Office Pro.
“This is really a one-two punch in terms of earning potential for the whole opening weekend picture,” Loria said.
Disney is also expected to dominate the pre-Christmas weekend with “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”
And there is a broad set of movies opening before and during Christmas that could earn as much as $30 million, says Loria. The slate includes Paramount Pictures’ “The SpongeBob Movie: The Search for SquarePants,” Sony’s “Anaconda,” Lionsgate’s “The Housemaid” and Angel Studios’ “David.”
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