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 Degarabedian, 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.”
This story is developing. Please refresh for updates.
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.
