The Universal Pictures film adaptation of Broadway’s “Wicked” made a strong showing at the box office during its opening weekend. The Jon M. Chu-directed movie musical was released in cinemas on Nov. 22, earning $114,000,000 domestically across 3,888 theaters. “Wicked” took in an additional $50,180,000 ducats internationally, bringing its opening-weekend total to $164,180,000.
“Wicked” broke the record as the highest-grossing opening weekend for a Broadway adaptation both domestically and internationally. The $114 million domestic figure is 267% higher than “Into the Woods”’ opening-weekend record of $31.1 million set in 2014. Worldwide, “Wicked”’s $164.2 ducats surpassed the $103 million taken in globally by “Les Misérables” in 2012. (For reference, “Les Mis” earned $27.3 million domestically during its opening weekend.)
Additionally, “Wicked” far eclipsed the initial domestic earnings of many other stage-to-screen musical adaptations. “Wicked” out-grossed three of 2021’s major movie musicals combined: “Dear Evan Hansen” ($7,443,830), “In the Heights” ($11,504,710) and “West Side Story” ($10,574,618).
Widening the lens to include movie musicals not adapted from the stage, “Barbie”’s domestic opening outshines “Wicked,” taking in $162,022,044 in 2023. In the realm of animated musicals, the 2019 remake of “The Lion King” grossed $191,770,759 domestically in its first weekend, while “Frozen II” earned $130,263,358.
“Wicked”’s opening coincided with the premiere of the also highly anticipated “Gladiator II,” the sequel to the 2000 Best Picture Academy Award winner “Gladiator.” Domestically, the Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal starrer earned $55,500,000, less than half of “Wicked”’s box office take. However, “Gladiator II” played fewer venues (3,573). On average, this equates to “Wicked” taking in $29,321 per theater, with “Gladiator II” taking in $15,533 per theater.
Compared to the domestic opening weekends of titles in the Marvel universe, the franchise’s two most recent films, “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “The Marvels,” earned $211,435,291 and $46,110,859, respectively.
In terms of overall rankings, “Wicked” comes in 63rd place for highest domestic opening weekend (“Avengers: Endgame” holds the number one slot with a box office take of $357,115,007). “Wicked” is the only Broadway film adaptation in the top 100.
“Wicked” features a Tony Award-nominated score by Stephen Schwartz and a screenplay by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox adapted from Holzman’s Tony-nominated book for the stage show. “Wicked” tells the backstory of the “Wizard of Oz”’s Wicked Witch of the West and Good Witch of the North.
The film stars Tony winner Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, Ariana Grande as Glinda, Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz, Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Tony nominee Ethan Slater as Boq, Peter Dinklage as Dr. Dillamond and Marissa Bode as Nessarose.
Box office statistics are courtesy of Box Office Mojo.
