5 Reasons Why Wicked: For Good Dominated The Box Office

"Wicked: For Good" proved to be very, very good for the box office. The follow-up to last year's smash hit musical "Wicked" from director Jon M. Chu didn't disappoint, even against lofty expectations, posting one of the biggest opening weekends of 2025. It's going to help end an uneven year at the movies on a high note.

Universal's "Wicked: For Good" opened to a massive $150 million domestically to go with $76 million internationally for a $226 million global start. Domestically, that's above the first weekend take for Disney's "Lilo & Stitch" ($146 million) and just a little below that for "A Minecraft Movie" ($163 million). Globally, it ranks as the fifth-biggest debut of 2025 overall. For some additional context, "Wicked: For Good" is already one of the top 20 highest-grossing movies worldwide for the year after just a single weekend.

This also ranks as Universal's second-biggest opening of all time, trailing only 2015's "Jurassic World" ($208.8 million). All of this to say, the movie had a stellar debut. It's also just getting started, as it figures to do very well over the holiday stretch during Thanksgiving week, leading right up to Christmas. This is the unqualified, massive success that the industry has been waiting for.

So, what went right here? How did Universal and Chu manage to take the original "Wicked" Broadway musical and turn it into a blockbuster franchise? We're going to look at the biggest reasons why "Wicked: For Good" ruled the box office on opening weekend. Let's get into it.

When audiences are on a movie's side, it always makes the studio's job a whole lot easier. In this case, moviegoers were very much on the side of "Wicked: For Good." The movie holds an okay 70% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes but, more importantly, also boasts a stellar 95% audience rating. It also earned an A CinemaScore, which suggests word of mouth will be great. So, this won't be a one weekend wonder, even with major competition from "Zootopia 2" just around the corner.

The second "Wicked" movie once again centers on Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande), now estranged after the events of the first film. Elphaba, having been publicly demonized as The Wicked Witch of the West, now lives in exile as she fights for the freedom of Oz's silenced Animals, even as she desperately tries to expose the truth she harbors about The Wizard (Jeff Goldblum).

In her review of "Wicked: For Good" for /Film, BJ Colangelo praised both Erivo and Grande's performances, saying that it boasts "a pitch-perfect cast that rivals the Original Broadway production from 2003." Audiences seem to agree, and that helped elevate this musical to something bigger than anyone could have expected a year ago.

The first "Wicked" opened to $112 million in November 2024 in the same pre-Thanksgiving window. It had more competition as it opened directly against Ridley Scott's "Gladiator II" ($55 million) at the box office, but it was still a massive success, also pulling in just over $50 million overseas. The first half of the Broadway adaptation was also heavily weighted domestically, pulling in $758.7 million worldwide, with nearly 63% of that money coming from North America.

What we've seen this time around is that the audience grew both domestically and overseas (and pretty substantially, we might add). A lot of that probably had to do with the fact that audiences have had ample time to catch up on "Wicked" ahead of the release of "For Good." It's been on VOD for months in addition to being readily available on HBO Max. Universal also re-released "Wicked" briefly in theaters to help grease the wheels a bit.

It also certainly doesn't hurt that interest in "The Wizard of Oz" has spiked this year thanks to the Sphere in Las Vegas. What that all did was create a scenario where the potential audience for the sequel was bigger than it was for its predecessor. That doesn't always happen, but when it does, it's a recipe for a huge hit. Not unlike "John Wick: Chapter 2" or "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," Universal managed to increase interest between installments in this franchise.

In modern Hollywood, it's not terribly uncommon for long waits between sequels in popular franchises. This isn't just a byproduct of the pandemic, either, as it had been happening before that as well. "The Batman" came out in 2022 and "The Batman Part II" isn't arriving until 2027. "Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse" also isn't arriving until 2027, a full four years after "Across the Spider-Verse." It happens.

While that doesn't always kill a given sequel's commercial prospects, it can make it difficult to build momentum. In this case, Universal shot both parts of "Wicked" back-to-back, allowing them to release the films within a year of one another. It's not unlike what Marvel Studios did with "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame," which worked out pretty darn well for "Endgame." This allows momentum to build without hype dying down all that much, and it's a great strategy for audience investment.

Additionally, Universal was able to taper down the marketing budget this time around, spending around $90 million compared to $150 million for the first installment, per Variety. That makes the bigger opening weekend look that much better, especially considering that both movies carry a reported $150 million production budget. The studio was able to spend less to make more. That's a healthy pathway to success, if one can pull it off, which is easier said than done. Credit where credit is due, Universal nailed it here.

There was much debate when it was revealed that Universal was splitting the "Wicked" stage musical into two movie adaptations. Even now, there remains debate as to whether, from a story perspective, that was the right call to make. "Wicked: For Good" adapts the second half of the stage musical, so while it's not as egregious as splitting "The Hobbit" into three movies, it was always going to require an expansion of the material to make things work.

No matter where one falls on the debate from a critical standpoint, it's difficult to argue with results. What Chu, along with writers Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, accomplished is nothing shy of an out-and-out win, the likes of which we rarely see anymore. Let's not forget that hit Broadway musicals are in no way guaranteed to succeed when adapted for the silver screen. Just look at the disaster that was "Cats." For as much as some might argue that "Wicked" was stretched a bit thin for two movies, it might have felt rushed as a single, three-hour epic instead.

More than anything, though, from a business perspective, Universal absolutely made the right call by splitting "Wicked" into two movies. Not just for the studio's own bottom line, but this was also a big film that the industry at large sorely needed this year. Major, surefire hits are harder and harder to come by, with many would-be blockbusters disappointing greatly in 2025. Theater owners are undoubtedly very happy that "Wicked" wasn't a one-and-done proposition.

There are some lessons that Hollywood seemingly needs to learn time and time again before it sticks. In this case, "Wicked: For Good" is an impossible to ignore reminder that making movies aimed at women is good for business. For whatever reasons, for so much of the 2000s and 2010s, a ton of what was being put into the marketplace was made with men in mind. Since then, though, some of the biggest, most unexpected hits have come when studios make something for what is a shockingly underserved audience. This is just the latest, biggest example.

2024 saw "It End With Us" become a shocking $350 million sensation. This year, another Colleen Hoover adaptation, "Regretting You," is coming up on $90 million worldwide against lousy reviews. That's because women are showing up. The same can be said for "Materialists," which quietly made $106.5 million globally earlier this year. It keeps happening, and now, it's happened on a blockbuster scale once again.

The audience for the "Wicked" sequel was roughly 70% female, which is a truly impressive number. What we've seen over and over again is that serving underserved audiences is good for business. Period. It's part of what made "Black Panther" a phenomenon. It's what made "Magic Mike" the movie of the moment in 2012. It's also why anime is booming right now. With any luck, this might help cement the point in the minds of Hollywood executives more broadly: Serve the audiences who are eager to be served. It may not always work out, but when it does, they show up happily and in droves. 

"Wicked: For Good" is in theaters now.