Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo star in Universal’s “Wicked: For Good.”
Universal
Universal’s “Wicked: For Good” defied gravity at the box office, snaring an estimated $150 million from domestic ticket sales.
It marks the second-highest opening weekend for a film released in 2025, just behind Warner Bros.’ “A Minecraft Movie,” which tallied $163 million back in April. It also outpaces the debut of last year’s “Wicked,” which tallied $112.5 million in the U.S. and Canada.
The film’s haul sets the record for the biggest opening weekend of a Broadway adaptation. With additional ticket sales from international markets, “Wicked: For Good” is set to reach a $226 million global haul for its first three days in theaters.
An estimated 10 million tickets were sold for “Wicked: For Good” during opening weekend, topping the 8 million sold during the opening of “Wicked” last year, according to data from EntTelligence.
The box office data company also reported that 30% of domestic screenings were in premium large format theaters, up from 18% for “Wicked.” These tickets are more expensive than general admission and can help bolster blockbuster releases. EntTelligence noted that general tickets for “Wicked: For Good” averaged at around $15.25 each while tickets for premium screens averaged at $18.75 a piece.
“Team Universal did a fantastic job of following perfectly on the success of the original film a year ago and have parlayed that into an even bigger debut for this second installment,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore. “‘Wicked: For Good’ will look forward to incredibly strong playability throughout Thanksgiving week and beyond during the all-important holiday movie-going season.”
Last year, the combination of “Wicked,” Paramount’s “Gladiator II” and Disney’s “Moana 2” helped boost the Thanksgiving holiday box office to its highest haul ever. This year, “Wicked: For Good” is joined by Disney’s “Zootopia 2.”
The first “Zootopia” opened in 2016 to $75 million domestically but went on to gross more than $1 billion worldwide. Pent-up audience demand could push the film’s three-day opening to around $100 million and the five-day Thanksgiving period to north of $125 million.
“The impressive expected over-performance by ‘Wicked: For Good,’ in combination with the other films in the marketplace, could give last year’s record Thanksgiving literally a run for its money,” Dergarabedian said. “This is great news after all the negative stories about the challenging October box office drove the narrative.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.
