Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo appear in Universal’s Wicked: For Good.
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universal “Wicked: For Good” defied gravity at the box office, earning an estimated $150 million from domestic ticket sales.
This was the second-highest next weekend opening for a film released in 2025. Warner Brothers” “A Minecraft Movie” grossed $163 million in April. That also exceeds last year’s debut of “Wicked,” which grossed $112.5 million in the U.S. and Canada.
The film’s box office sales set a record for the biggest opening weekend for a Broadway film adaptation. With additional ticket sales from overseas markets, Wicked: For Good is on track to gross $226 million worldwide in its first three days in theaters.
Wicked: For Good sold an estimated 10 million tickets during its opening weekend, according to data from EntTelligence, surpassing last year’s opening weekend of 8 million tickets.
The box office data firm also reported that 30% of domestic screenings were in premium large theaters, up from 18% for “Wicked.” These tickets are more expensive than general admission and help promote blockbuster releases. EntTelligence noted that general tickets for “Wicked: For Good” averaged around $15.25 each, while premium screen tickets averaged $18.75 each.
“Team Universal has done a great job of perfectly building on the success of the original film a year ago, and building on that to an even bigger debut with this second installment,” said Paul Dergarabedian, Head of Marketplace Trends at ComScore. “‘Wicked: For Good’ promises incredibly strong playability throughout Thanksgiving week and beyond during the all-important holiday movie season.”
Last year, it was the combination of “Wicked”. Paramount’s “Gladiator II” disney’s Thanks to “Moana 2,” Thanksgiving box office sales reached an all-time high. This year, “Wicked: For Good” will be joined by Disney’s “Zootopia 2.”
The original Zootopia was released in 2016 for $75 million domestically, but grossed more than $1 billion worldwide. Due to pent-up audience demand, the film’s opening three days could bring in around $100 million, and the five-day Thanksgiving period could exceed $125 million.
“With ‘Wicked: For Good’ outperforming expectations along with other films on the market, last year’s record-setting Thanksgiving could quite literally be undone,” Dergarabedian said. “This is great news, as there has been a lot of negative talk about poor box office results in October.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. With Comcast’s planned Versant spinoff, Versant will become CNBC’s new parent company.
