Wicked sets box office records in opening weekend

Wicked has set a number of box office records as it storms to a solid opening box office weekend.

In the US and Canada, the film has landed with a $114 million haul, setting the record for the biggest opening for a musical adaptation of a stage show ever. It had to beat Into the Woods, which had an opening week tally of around a third of that, so it wasn’t a high bar – but is a very nice thing to be able to shout about.

In the UK, the first half of the stage adaptation earned an estimated single-day amount of $4.9M according to Deadline. Social chatter has that figure closer to £5m, which would be significantly higher than the Deadline number, and would mean Wicked has achieved the biggest single-day box office earnings of 2024 on these shores (ahead of Deadpool and Wolverine or Inside Out 2). 

True figures for the weekend should land in the next day or two. Overall for the weekend should come in around $15m across the UK. A big driver for the film’s box office success is IMAX: Wicked delivered the highest-grossing opening Friday in the format for a PG film.

Speaking on the sales this weekend, Tim Richards, founder and CEO of Vue UK, said: “Vue has seen a sea of pink and green over the opening weekend of Wicked, which has shown continued high demand for the big screen experience. We saw record-breaking pre-sales for Wicked, followed by a chart-topping opening weekend – the biggest for 2024. This is the largest opening weekend ever for a stage musical adaptation, three times larger than Matilda in 2022 and 60 per cent up on Les Misérables. Wicked is the latest film in four weeks of back-to-back blockbusters: Paddington, Gladiator 2, Wicked and Moana 2. With Mufasa: The Lion King opening in a few weeks,  there is a huge breadth of films out there for all audiences, and we’re delighted to see customers come back to Vue time and again for high quality content on the big screen.”

Overall, this should amount to a $165 million global tally – again, set to be the biggest opening weekend for a film based on a Broadway/West End adaptation, ahead of Les Miserables ($103M). Considering that a few regions haven’t premiered the film yet, it’s looking very positive for Universal.

Wicked won’t land as the largest opening weekend for any musical ever – Disney very much owns that podium with Frozen II, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Aladdin and The Little Mermaid. Mermaid sits at $164.3 million, so Wicked could finish just above that.

Regardless, this means Wicked holds the record for the highest opening weekend for any non-Disney musical. Worth bearing in mind: if you take out remakes of existing films, Wicked would rank in second place after Frozen II.

This is all before Moana 2 sails into cinemas next weekend, which might wash out all competition if the pre-sale figures are an indicator of the film’s appeal.

Based on the hit novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, Wicked tells the story of two unlikely university friends in the land of Oz, one destined to become Glinda the Good and the other, the Wicked Witch of the West. Wicked writers Winnie Holzman (book) and Stephen Schwartz (score) collaborated on the screenplay with Dana Fox.

Cynthia Erivo (Elphaba), Ariana Grande (Glinda) and Jonathan Bailey (Fiyero) lead the adaptation, alongside Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Tony nominee Ethan Slater as Boq, Marissa Bode as Nessarose, Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz, and Peter Dinklage as Dr Dillamond. Jon M Chu directs the two-part property.

The film received glowing reviews, including from WhatsOnStage.