A ‘Wicked’ debut: ‘For Good’ soars to $226M global opening

Universal Pictures two-part Wicked gamble continues to defy gravity at the box office Just a year after part one brought droves of audiences to movie theaters around the country even more people bought opening weekend tickets to see the epic conclusion Wicked For Good According to studio estimates on Sunday Wicked For Good earned million from North American theaters in its first days in theaters and million globally Not only is it the biggest opening ever for a Broadway musical adaptation unseating the record set by the first film s million launch it s also the second biggest debut of the year behind A Minecraft Movie s million The results are just fantastic announced Jim Orr who heads domestic distribution for Universal Selected films can deliver a false positive when tickets go on sale early but these results speak for themselves Universal began rolling out Wicked For Good in theaters earlier this week with previews on Monday million from theaters and Wednesday million from theaters By Friday it was playing in North American locations and had raked in million IMAX showings accounted for million or of its domestic haul a November record for the company IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond stated in a report that the strong arena share shows our momentum carries into demos and genres beyond our traditional core including families As with the first film women powered opening weekend making up around of ticket buyers according to PostTrak exit polls Critics were somewhat mixed on the final chapter but audiences weren t An overwhelming of audiences revealed it was one they would definitely recommend to friends As far as foot traffic is concerned the box office tracker EntTelligence estimates that about million more people came out for Wicked For Good s first weekend than for Wicked s Jon M Chu directed both Wicked films starring Cynthia Ervio and Ariana Grande The first film made over million worldwide and received Oscar nominations winning two for costume and production design The question is how high Wicked For Good can soar Combined the two films cost around million to produce not including marketing and promotion costs The first film paved the way Orr noted It s really become a cultural event I think audiences are going to be flocking to theaters for quite specific time to come Two other films also opened in wide release this weekend but further down on the charts behind a buffet of holdovers Searchlight Pictures opened its Brendan Fraser film Rental Family in theaters where it earned million The Finnish action film Sisu Road to Revenge a Sony release also played in theaters It earned an estimated million Second place went to Now You See Me Now You Don t with million in its second weekend followed by Predator Badlands with million in weekend three The Running Man followed in fourth place with million down from its debut last weekend Although this weekend the box office was more of a winner takes all scenario Wicked For Good s success is vitally critical for the exhibition industry as a whole as it enters the final weeks of the year It sets up a very strong final homestretch of the year explained Paul Dergarabedian Comscore s head of marketplace trends After the slow fall season the Thanksgiving blockbusters could not arrive soon enough Early next week Zootopia enters the mix and is also expected to drive big crowds to the cineplex over the holiday break Thanksgiving is often one of the biggest moviegoing frames of the year Dergarabedian explained and both Wicked and Zootopia will benefit Last year Wicked Moana and Gladiator II helped power a record five-day frame The running domestic box office is at this time hovering around billion according to Comscore Before the pandemic the annual box office would regularly hit billion but the post-pandemic goal has lessened to billion The big question now is whether titles like Wicked For Good Zootopia and Avatar Fire and Ash can push the industry over that threshold