Universal’s Wicked: For Good is sticking to a 3-day domestic opening of $150M and global debut of $226M. This is easily the best box office openings ever for Wicked 2 stars Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, director Jon M. Chu and even producer Marc Platt (his previous global opening record being 2019’s Aladdin at $213M).

There are significantly more box office records being broken with Wicked: For Good literally beating the first half of itself, that being last year’s Wicked. The first Wicked debuted to $112.5M stateside, $164M global. As we mentioned, it’s the second biggest U.S./Canada opening of the year behind A Minecraft Movie‘s $162.7M. After weathering a recessionary period at the box office this fall, Wicked: For Good is a reminder that if you want a stampede at movie theaters in the post Covid/post strikes world, the package and the buzz have to be perfect.

“When it comes to the success of Wicked: For Good, Wicked paved the yellow brick road,” explains Universal Domestic Distribution President Jim Orr this morning.

There was a tonal shift in the marketing campaign reflecting that Glinda and Elphaba aren’t girls in school anymore, they’re grown women. The key to blockbuster success stems from feeding the campaign constantly, which is exactly what Universal did with Wicked: For Good.

Next to say Jurassic World, the Wicked fan ship is unique: The franchise is an identifying statement for many and the connection to something deeper. With Jurassic, people aren’t going to theaters dressing up as dinosaurs. Wicked fans also scoop up a ton of merch.

Hence in terms of promotional partners, Wicked: For Good had 400 of them, who delivered more than $330 million in media and promotional value across the Comcast empire, global partnerships, licensing and retail. That promo partner campaign is the second highest for any motion picture studio behind Wicked‘s $350M a year ago.

Yes, Universal, executed a full bodied 360-degree global marketing campaign in over driver, but what’s amazing here is how even rival owned brands wanted in on the cultural milestone, i.e. ESPN Sportscenter discussed NFL trends in being Wicked: For Good or not against a pink and green set. There was also a team-up with Dancing with the Stars for a full-episode integration, which featured Chu as guest judge, an opening number choreographed by Christopher Scott, and every dance set to songs from the world of Wicked. The episode helped Wicked: For Good reach Dancing with the Stars’ biggest audience of adults 18-34 since 2015 and generated 57 million TikTok views in 24 hours. ESPN and Dancing With the Stars are Disney owned brands!

You could say that the Oscar campaign for part two began at the Oscars itself when Erivo and Grande sang ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’, ‘Home’ from The Wiz and ‘Defying Gravity’. That was the first time that the duo ever sang any portion of Wicked in public during the first part of the franchise’s campaign.

But if you want to talk about the golden egg in the Wicked: For Good marketing campaign, what was old was new for Universal: That variety show Wicked: One Wonderful Night. That stunt was a page out of the old 1980s movie marketing playbook; however, keep in mind, studios hardly produce movie-related specials anymore, and if they do, they’re a BTS segment hidden on a streaming menu. Wicked: One Wonderful Night racked up 3.6M viewers across platforms after its Nov. 6 air during its first three days, per Nielsen, making it NBC’s second best special of the year, coming in behind only February’s SNL50: The Anniversary Special. Uni saw a spike in advance ticket sales after that special (remember, Wicked: For Good on Fandango had the best advance ticket sales of any PG movie ever). Also, the Grande, Erivo, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth performances went viral.

Box Office stat org EntTelligence reports that Wicked: For Good brought in 10 million people in U.S./Canada versus Wicked‘s traffic of 8 million admissions. There was mostly matinee business with 57% of all people yesterday coming before 5pm (which is very similar to Wicked‘s 56% admissions prior to 5PM a year ago).

Saturday stateside rang up $43.3M for Wicked: For Good, -37% from Friday/previews of $68.9M. However, if you back the $30.8M previews out of Friday, then yesterday was really $38.1M. Hence, Saturday really posted a +14% boost over Friday, which is great news. Wicked: For Good‘s Saturday was higher than Wicked‘s (which was $35.4M), but when you back $19.2M previews out of Wicked‘s first day of $46.2M, that predecessor saw a higher jump in its pure Friday-to-Saturday of +31%.

Highest grossing location for Wicked: For Good was AMC Lincoln Square in NYC with $407K so far, followed by AMC Empire NYC ($378K), AMC Universal City Walk ($326K), AMC Orlando Disney Springs ($298K), AMC Burbank ($241K), AMC Century City ($227K), AMC LA Grove ($222K), Salt Lake City Larry Miller’s Megaplex Theater ($220K), Regal Union Square NYC ($212K) and Regal Irvine Spectrum ($210K). Wicked: For Good also popped in Nashville, Knoxville, Boston, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. Essentially, even play coast to coast, I’m told from several sources. No region is underperforming.

Added Orr, “From the moment tickets went on sale, it was very clear that the audience for Wicked: For Good was beyond eager to come out and see what has truly become more than just a movie, rather a cultural event that continues to defy expectations, as well as gravity. Our producer Marc Platt, our director Jon Chu, and the incredible cast led by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande have delivered an experience that folks were desperately looking forward to, an epic adventure that is the very essence of theatrical.”

Said ComScore Senior Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian, “This is the absolute perfect outcome for Wicked: For Good, but more importantly for the industry at large and after a decade’s low grossing month of October, the industry needed a morale and box office boost, and Wicked has provided the magic spell that theaters were waiting for in the post-summer period. With the domestic box office sitting at $7.5 billion year to date, we are $1.5 billion away from hitting the $9 billion mark and this is a threshold that seems within reach given the huge holiday season that’s on tap with a strong lineup of family films, awards contenders and franchise films that are on the way in the coming weeks.”

Comscore reports that Wicked: For Good will land this weekend at $190M for all titles, about -7% to -8% off from last year’s Comscore reported $204.8M (that pre-Thanksgiving frame including the $55M opening of male skewing, R-rated Gladiator II).

 

via Deadline