How the witches of Oz and studio chief and top NBCUniversal executive Donna Langley saved Universal has been vindicated.
It is now the largest opening of all time for a movie based on a Broadway musical, leaving behind the previous record holder, Into The Woods, which barely made $31m over the same period unadjusted for inflation, in theaters over the Nov 22-24 weekend.
Furthermore, it ranks as the fourth-largest domestic opening of any musical if you exclude three other Disney projects.It’s the perfect rebound for Universal, which was left battered by Tom Hooper’s Cats, an adaptation of the popular Broadway show, last year.
It premiered to a meager box office taking of $6.6 million going on to gross $25,238,064 in the US alone and $75,636,087 internationally. Langley and her team, however, never changed their approach to sticking with the plan to make two Wicked movies only (Chu’s sequel will be released in a year).
“Wicked”, Universal, lays down the formula on how to harvest over $100M plus opening weekend box office for this unapologetically volatile movie genre many musical movies have been made, just as many have been all but lost despite having brand name IPs, famous stars, experienced directors and marketing campaigns,” said Comscore top box office analyst Paul Degerabedian.
“To avoid confusion on part of many who might feel this will lead to the changing of the guards with sudden rush of hit movie musicals one needs to mind that the journey to successful Wicked was a well – thought out, calculated and mapped exercise down to the slightest detail and hence will not be a repeat.”
Globally, Wicked also broke records in launching to $50.2m from 61 territories with $164m global bow making it the biggest worldwide opening so far for a Broadway musical adaptation and ranking fith highest of all time for a musical ahead of Les Misérables.
| Wicked (2019) | $114 million |
| Into the Woods (2014) | $31.1 million |
| Mamma Mia! (2008) | $27.8 million |
| Hairspray (2007) | $27.5 million |
| Les Misréables (2012) | $27.3 million |
| Annie (2014) | $15.9 million |
| Rock of Ages (2012) | $14.4 million |
| Jersey Boys (2014) | $13.3 million |
| Chicago (2002) | $12.7 million |
| Grease (1998) | $12.7 million |
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