Box office news: Could ‘Wicked: For Good’ be one of the biggest films of 2025?
Director Jon M. Chu’s Wicked: For Good, a follow-up to the 2024 smash-hit Wicked, is having an even better time at the box office.
Records are tumbling, and the Broadway adaptation sequel shows no signs of slowing down at the box office, both in the U.S. and internationally.
Film News Blitz’s Dan Lawrence takes a look at the numbers.
A grand opening
After the box office, critical and awards success of Wicked, plenty of hype and promotion has been pumped into Wicked: For Good, and it has cast the right spell.
Arriving in theatres on Friday, November 21 (with the odd preview ahead of time), Wicked: For Good enjoyed a remarkable opening weekend.
In the U.S. scene, takings totalled $150 million, with the Guardian reporting this as a new record for Broadway adaptations.
That’s also the second-best U.S. opening of 2025, behind A Minecraft Movie ($162 million), and beats Wicked’s $114 million.
International takings improved over 2024 as well, $76 million beating $50.2 million.
That means a worldwide opening weekend of $226 million, setting a new record for a Broadway musical adaptation, set by Wicked last year.
No signs of slowing down
After a week in cinemas, Wicked: For Good had racked up $207.2 million in the U.S., becoming just the ninth release of 2025 to pass $200 million at the box office stateside.
Worldwide, at the time of writing, figures suggest the film is close to $270 million and could cross the $300 million boundary once its second weekend in cinemas is through.
An incredible return after a rough period at the box office for the film industry, with no signs of slowing down.
Wicked ended its run with over $750 million, and if Wicked: For Good continues to beat its predecessor at the box office, it could be one of the biggest releases of 2025.
More ‘Wicked’ sequels
Having enjoyed such success, it’s no surprise now that Universal is looking to make more Wicked sequels.
While there’s no more of the stage show to adapt from, or the book from which it is derived, there are more novels from the world of Wicked, meaning the well hasn’t run dry just yet for Universal.
In a period of box office uncertainty, bankable IP is a goldmine, and Universal knows this.
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"Because of Wicked's success but also the fanship, we have almost a responsibility to figure out how we can continue in this universe,” Universal Pictures' chief marketing officer, Michael Moses, told Vulture.
"Have we figured it out yet? No. But there are things underway," Moses added.
Wicked, the stage musical, and the two film adaptations are based on Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.
Maguire continued his penmanship with three more works within Oz: Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men, and Out of Oz.
Is ‘Wicked: For Good’ great?
Wicked: For Good is an apt title, given that the follow-up to Wicked can’t quite reach the heights of its predecessor.
Shifting to a darker tone, with more plot elements to handle, and with the inclusion of The Wizard of Oz’s core characters, plus the fact that this is part two of a wider story, means Wicked: For Good struggles under its heavy lifting.
The songs, still impactful, don’t pack the same punch as Wicked, and For Good misses out on a rising crescendo to ‘Defying Gravity’, instead ending on a sombre, but emotional ‘For Good.’
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, however, continue to show that they are two of the most phenomenal performers working today, and they no doubt will carry Oscars buzz throughout awards season.
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