Universal’s ‘Wicked: For Good’ Defies Gravity In Box Office Debut

Cynthia Erivo, left, and Ariana Grande attend as Comcast-owned Universal Pictures premieres ‘Wicked For Good.’ (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Universal Pictures)

Key Points

• “Wicked: For Good” achieved a record-breaking $226 million opening weekend globally, with $150 million from domestic sales.
• The film averaged $36,452 a theater across 4,115 screens in the U.S. and Canada, including $25.3 million from IMAX.
• Domestic box office sales for the year reached $7.49 billion, a 3.3% increase compared with the same point last year.

Movie audiences were eagerly anticipating the second half of last year’s Wicked, giving the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical a record-breaking $226 million opening weekend through Sunday.

Domestic box office sales of $150 million beat expectations and sets Hollywood up for a strong end to an otherwise lackluster year.

The film, directed by Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians, In The Heights) and starring Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jeff Goldblum, and Michelle Yeoh, brought in an average of $36,452 a theater across 4,115 screens in the U.S. and Canada, according to Comscore. That includes $25.3 million on IMAX screens.

Wicked: For Good is the biggest all-time global opening for a Broadway musical, ahead of last year’s Wicked. The PG-rated tale of the unlikely sisterhood between Elphaba and Glinda generated another $76 million in international box office sales.

Wicked: For Good helped deliver a $185.5 million box office weekend after a disappointing October. For the industry, domestic box office sales have reached $7.49 billion for the year through Sunday, up 3.3% compared with this point last year, Comscore said.

Expectations were high after last year’s Wicked delivered a $112.5 million domestic opening weekend. During a Nov. 5 conference call, AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron said advance bookings for the second installment were “through the roof.”

The 2-hour, 40-minute Wicked went on to sell $757.3 million worldwide, including almost $475 million domestically and $282.7 million internationally, according to Universal. Wicked: For Good clocks in at 2 hours, 17 minutes.

The importance of Wicked: For Good’s $150 million domestic debut and the positive momentum it will have on box office fortunes moving forward “cannot be overstated,” said Comscore’s head of marketplace trends Paul Dergarabedian.

Hollywood is within striking distance of hitting or exceeding the $9 billion mark at the domestic box office for the year, he said, noting that “we are just a billion and a half away from the $9 billion mark.” Last year, the industry generated more than $1.6 billion from ticket sales for the period spanning the Friday before Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve.

Wicked: For Good sets the stage for big franchise films like Universal’s Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, 20th Century Studios’ Avatar: Fire & Ash, Paramount’s The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants, and Sony Pictures’ Anaconda, plus award season contenders like A24’s Marty Supreme and Focus Song Sung Blue, among others, Dergarabedian said.

Wicked: For Good is the second highest-grossing opening weekend this year, after Warner Bros.’ A Minecraft Movie, which opened April 4 with a $162.8 million weekend and has sold $423.95 million in domestic box office this year, according to Comscore.

Coming in second for the weekend was Lionsgate Films’ mystery thriller Now You See Me, Now You Don’t, which sold $9.1 million in its second weekend. The film, the third installment to the 2103 film Now You See Me and 2016 sequel Now You See Me 2, has sold $36.8 million domestically since it opened on Nov. 14. But like its predecessors, the film has been especially popular with international audiences.

Now You See Me, Now You Don’t has sold an estimated $146.2 million internationally in 81 markets.

The 2013 film sold $117.7 million domestically and $234 million internationally, for a global total of $351.7 million, according to BoxOfficeMojo. The 2016 installment sold $65.1 million domestically and $269.8 million internationally, for a global total of $334.9 million.

20th Century Studios’ sci-fi thriller Badlands: Predator came in third place in its third weekend, with nearly $6.3 million through Sunday and $159.6 million globally year to date. In comparison, Sony Pictures Classics’ historical drama Nuremberg, also in its third weekend, sold only $1.2 million in its third weekend, and has racked up $11 million cumulatively.

In fourth place, Paramount Studios’ dystopian thriller The Running Man sold $5.8 million in its second weekend, for a domestic total of $27 million. Its global sales are an estimated $48.3 million.

Only two other two films that opened this weekend cracked the top 10: Searchlight Pictures’ Rental Family, a PG-13-rated comedy starring Brendan Fraser as an American actor in Tokyo working for a Japanese “rental family” agency, with $3.3 million; and Sony Pictures’ Sisu: Road to Revenge, an R-rated war drama, with $2.6 million.

A24’s comedy Eternity and Disney’s animated sequel Zootopia 2 both open on Wednesday, along with Disney’s rerelease of The Beatles Anthology. Universal’s Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 opens Dec. 5.

Write to Janet H. Cho at janet.cho@dowjones.com