The musical dominating the fall is Wicked, taking down a significant box office record held for decades.
Universal’s Wicked: Part One became the highest-grossing movie ever at the domestic box office based on a Broadway musical in just one week. With the holiday weekend in the States, the Jon M. Chu-directed, Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande-starring epic brought in $214.3M.
By Sunday, it will creep to just under $263M. It’s topped the previous record-holder, surpassing the lifetime gross of the 1978 classic Grease.
As for worldwide, the film will likely end Sunday with $358M, and reports put the film as the fourth highest-grossing movie based on a Broadway musical after Mamma Mia! ($611.2M), Les Miserables ($442.7M), and Grease ($396.2M). Industry projections have it possibly topping that record and putting some distance between its peers.
Many saw Moana 2 taking a massive chunk of Wicked‘s momentum, but the dueling PG-rated female-led musicals coexist nicely. Wicked is the third best over the Wednesday-Sunday holiday behind Moana 2 and Disney’s Frozen 2 and now sits as the third-best Black Friday box office behind Moana 2 and Frozen 2.
Let’s see if this musical phenomenon can keep up this wickedly good roll.
After two decades as one of the most beloved and enduring musicals on the stage, Wicked makes its long-awaited journey to the big screen as a spectacular, generation-defining cinematic event this holiday season.
Wicked, the untold story of the witches of Oz, stars Emmy, Grammy and Tony winning powerhouse Cynthia Erivo (Harriet, Broadway’s The Color Purple) as Elphaba, a young woman, misunderstood because of her unusual green skin, who has yet to discover her true power, and Grammy-winning, multi-platinum recording artist and global superstar Ariana Grande as Glinda, a popular young woman, gilded by privilege and ambition, who has yet to discover her true heart.
The two meet as students at Shiz University in the fantastical Land of Oz and forge an unlikely but profound friendship. Following an encounter with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, their friendship reaches a crossroads and their lives take very different paths. Glinda’s unflinching desire for popularity sees her seduced by power, while Elphaba’s determination to remain true to herself, and to those around her, will have unexpected and shocking consequences on her future. Their extraordinary adventures in Oz will ultimately see them fulfill their destinies as Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.
