5 Reasons Why Wicked Dominated The Box Office

It was the weekend that box office observers had circled on their calendars for months. Universal Pictures released the big Broadway musical adaptation “Wicked” in theaters on the same day that Paramount Pictures unleashed Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II” on audiences in North America. 2023 had Barbenheimer. 2024 had Glicked. While pretty much everyone was a winner here, it was director Jon M. Chu’s fantastical musical epic that came out on top.

Chu’s latest topped the domestic charts with an estimated $114 million. Coupled with the film’s solid $50.1 million overseas total, that leaves “Wicked” with a ridiculously strong $164 million global opening. “Gladiator II” still managed to open to $55 million, which was great all things considered, but Universal’s return to the land of Oz ended up blowing past already optimistic industry projections with its opening. It now ranks as by far the biggest opening weekend ever for an adaptation of a pre-existing stage musical, demolishing the previous record held by “Into the Woods” ($31 million). In short? It was a massive win.

Universal now looks brilliant because it’s already got “Wicked: Part Two” coming out next year, having previously decided to split the adaptation into two halves. From running a stellar marketing campaign to Chu delivering a satisfying film, just about everything went right. But what were the main factors in this film’s staggering success? Let’s break down five of the biggest reasons that allowed “Wicked” to become one of the year’s most lucrative films.

One thing that certainly benefited “Wicked” (as well as “Gladiator II”) was how quiet things have been at the box office in the lead up to the big musical’s arrival. Earlier this month, Dwayne Johnson’s “Red One” was at best a qualified success for a big-budget streaming movie turned into a theatrical film. It wasn’t an outright blockbuster. Other than that, it had been up to horror movies like “Heretic” or specialty programming to hold audiences over for the past several weeks.

In short, audiences weren’t exhausted by an endless string of big movies competing for attention (something that can easily happen in the heat of the summer season). Universal Pictures picked a downright perfect place on the calendar to stick this one. Yes, “Moana 2” is just around the corner and figures to be a monster hit this week. That might eat into the holdover numbers for “Wicked” over Thanksgiving, but the film looks to have a whole lot of staying power, even up against Disney’s new animated sequel.

More crucial than anything else, “Wicked” is a broad-appeal crowd-pleaser, the likes of which we haven’t seen in quite a while. Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name currently holds a stellar 90% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes to go with a near-perfect 97% audience rating. That’s next level good. It also carries an A CinemaScore, which further indicates that word of mouth will be outstanding. That’s why “Moana 2” won’t turn this into a one-weekend-and-done situation.

/Film’s Witney Seibold called “Wicked” an “overlong and messy movie” in his 4 out of 10 review of the film. You can’t win ’em all, but the vast majority of critics and audiences are on this movie’s side in a big way. That means it can leg out over the entire holiday season into January. The sky is truly the limit here if things continue to go well. Universal now looks pretty darn clever for splitting the adaptation into two films.

A lesson that Hollywood seems to finally be taking seriously after learning it over and over again is that women will show up to big movies when they are catered to. That’s not to say that “Wicked” is a movie only for women, but it is a movie that was wildly popular with women. More than anything, it’s not a big action movie or four-quadrant blockbuster that is made with men in mind. That paid off handsomely here, just like it did with “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” last year, and as it did with “It Ends With Us” earlier in 2024.

The biggest recent example, of course, is “Barbie,” which made $1.44 billion to become the biggest box office surprise of 2023. One could argue it was even one of the biggest surprises in box office history. Again, a lot of that had to do with an under-served audience showing up in droves to support a big movie that was finally made for them. This works with other demographics as well, though it always feels weird to refer to women as a “demographic” as we’re talking about, essentially, half the population. I’m aware it’s far more complicated than that, but you get the idea. Hollywood can benefit greatly by serving hungry audiences. Universal just did in a big, bad way.

For years, Hollywood has been obsessed with comic book movies. They’ve been the outright dominant force in the industry for over two decades. While the age of superhero movies isn’t totally over, the age of their presumed dominance is. “Wicked” proves that adapting other popular things is a winning strategy. It doesn’t have to be limited to comic books. “Wicked” was a wildly popular, long-running Broadway show connected to “The Wizard of Oz,” which is one of the most beloved movies of all time. It’s a no-brainer when looking at it on paper, in many ways.

Let’s go back to “It Ends With Us,” that movie kicked “Deadpool & Wolverine” out of the top spot on the charts in August and has since made $350 million worldwide. That was, yet again, an adaptation of a very popular book by Colleen Hoover. Granted, this relies on making a good movie based on the piece of work in question, which is no easy task. Just look at what happened with “Cats.” That said, it’s a clear lesson that popular things, be it a play or a book, are valuable targets for potential movies. It may sound obvious, but it’s no less true.

Though it may not have taken the internet by storm like Barbenheimer did last year, Glicked was a factor here. The dual threat of “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” ended up mirroring what happened with “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” It was a brilliant stroke of counterprogramming by Universal and Paramount, one that certain corners of the internet dubbed Glicked.

The internet didn’t wind up generating the free marketing machine that it did for Barbenheimer, but the media comparisons and ink spilled over the box office battle between “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” mattered. It is extremely difficult to cut through the noise these days, even under the best of circumstances. Any benefit that can get the media and the internet on a movie’s side is an asset. It’s impossible to quantify the value of that asset but it certainly matters, that much is certain. The proof is in the pudding here, as “Wicked” over-performed to the industry’s benefit. Cue applause from theater owners all over the world.

“Wicked” is in theaters now.