Wicked, the musical is set to have the top-grossing opening weekend for any Broadway musical adaptation in the UK, Ireland, and North America. As per projections from the data firm the Boxoffice Company, the hit Broadway musical adaptation is expected to have $114m (£90.6m) on the opening weekend in North America. This takes over the previous record holder, Les Miserables. The movie brought in $103m on its opening weekend in 2012 globally. On the other hand, in the UK and Ireland, the film is set to earn $17.6m (£14m) this weekend. If this happens, Wicked would be the top-grossing opening weekend of 2024.
Gladiator II also opened on Friday in North America. The Boxoffice Company said that this was the strongest weekend at the box office before the grand Thanksgiving holiday since 2013.
The Wicked musical is based on a book, originating backstory of the Wicked Witch of the West. The musical first premiered on Broadway and for two decades it has been running on the West End. The film adaptation earned $46.48m (£37m) on Friday including its Thursday premier and $36m on Saturday in North America. The audience poll revealed that the viewers were 72% female, and 67% were over the age of 25. This is said to be a big win for Universal, according to Boxoffice’s Daniel Loria. The musical also had the third biggest opening in the US after Deadpool & Wolverine with $211m (£168m) in July and Inside Out 2 with $154m (£122m) in June.
On the other hand, the musical’s soundtrack voiced by Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo including Popular and Defying Gravity has soared high on the music charts, and playlists on streaming services. The coming weeks will decide whether Wicked can be as successful globally as its sisters in Broadway film adaptations, such as Chicago ($306m / £244m), and Les Miserables ($442m / £352m).
In North America, another reinvented classic is making waves at the box office. Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, following up the 2000 epic, opened this weekend to $22m (£17.5m) on Friday. On Saturday, the film earned $18.8m. Over its opening weekend, the sequel is projected to make $55.5m (£44.2m).
According to Mr Loria’s prediction, Moana 2, out on Wednesday in the US has the potential to take the top spot in these three films. However, with more people watching Wicked and Gladiator II over the holiday week, “we have the potential of reaching the highest-grossing Thanksgiving weekend on record in North America by this time next week”, he commented. On Sunday, cinemas in the US celebrated the performance. The grand performance became after years of disruption caused by the Pandemic. The National Association of Theatre Owners indicated it was “one of the most successful November weekends ever at the box office”.
Good news for the Wicked team as the Broadway musical adaptation got the opening weekend at the box office in the UK and Ireland. It was the biggest weekend for the filmmaker Universal since No Time to Die, the last and most recent James Bond movie released in 2021 that the studios distributed.
