Have you seen it yet? One of the MOST anticipated films of the year finally hit theaters over the weekend to GLOWING reviews... and it raked in a TON of cash at the Box Office! It's not easy for Broadway adaptations to become huge hits... remember when Taylor Swift was in the new Cats or the Dear Evan Hansen movie? No... you don't really remember them either? That's not the case with WICKED!
Universal defied the odds (and Gravity) this weekend opening to $112.5M domestic and $162.5M worldwide... which has it on pace to beat the former record holders Les Miserables & Chicago. Not to mention... the cast was PHENOMENAL and we're already waiting for Part 2 next year!
Here are all of the records that the movie broke this weekend (according to Deadline):
Biggest Global and Domestic Opening for a Movie Based on a Broadway Show, beating the worldwide opening of 2012’s Les Miserables ($103M) and the domestic opening of Disney’s 2014 Into the Woods ($31M).
Biggest Global and Domestic Opening for Ariana Grande ever, Wicked being her first feature tentpole debut. And therefore arguably…
Biggest Domestic Opening for a Pop Star, with Wicked besting the first films sold around the likeness of such performing artists as Lady Gaga (A Star Is Born at $42.5M), Harry Styles (Don’t Worry Darling at $19.3M), Britney Spears (Crossroads at $14.5M), Taylor Swift (Cats at $6.6M), Madonna (Desperately Seeking Susan at $1.5M), and the entire domestic gross of Michael Jackson’s The Wiz ($21M unadjusted for inflation).
Biggest Global and Domestic Opening Ever for filmmaker Jon M. Chu, mowing down the $40.5M domestic start of his 2013 Dwyane Johnson, Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation and the $132M worldwide start of that Hasbro/Paramount movie.
Biggest Domestic Opening for Producer Marc Platt, besting 2023’s The Little Mermaid‘s $95.5M, however, it’s…
2nd Biggest Global Opening for Producer Marc Platt, behind the 2019 live-action take of Disney’s Aladdin at $213M.
Biggest Global Opening for a non-sequel film for 2024, besting China’s Yolo which opened to $112M over Chinese New Year as well as MPAA title, It Ends With Us, which posted an $80M global first frame.
Biggest Opening Ever for a Musical Feature by Stephen Schwartz, besting Enchanted‘s domestic opening of $34.4M.
Biggest Domestic Previews for a Movie Based on Broadway Musical at $19.2M.
Biggest First Day for a Movie Based on a Broadway Musical at $46.4M, besting the first day/preview haul of Les Miserables ($18.1M) and The Color Purple ($18.1M).
2nd biggest domestic opening for a musical feature in November, behind 2019’s Frozen II‘s $130.2M.
5th biggest domestic opening for a musical feature ever, behind 2019’s The Lion King ($191.7M), 2017’s Beauty and the Beast ($174.7M), 2023’s Barbie ($162M — it did have people singing and plenty of show-stopping numbers!) and 2019’s Frozen ($130.2M).
6th biggest opening at the Global Box Office for a Musical Feature behind 2019’s The Lion King ($446M), 2017’s Beauty and the Beast ($358M), Frozen 2 ($358M), Barbie ($356.3M) and 2019’s Aladdin ($213M).
10th biggest domestic opening for November, in a list that’s topped by Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ($181.3M).
3rd Biggest Opening Weekend at Domestic Box Office for 2024 at the time of this post, behind Deadpool & Wolverine ($211.4M) and Inside Out 2 ($154.2M) and ahead of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ($111M).
