Universal's big-screen adaptation of the Broadway hit-musical Wicked continues to enthrall audiences worldwide, and the studio's choice to divide the story across two movies is turning out to be an incredibly savvy financial move.
With a $150 million budget, the first film made an impressive $759 million worldwide in 2024, and it looks like the 2025 follow-up is poised to achieve even greater success, opening with a staggering $226 million worldwide.
This opening represents yet another significant victory for the team, with $150 million coming from local sales and $76 million from foreign ones.
Wicked: For Good resets the record for domestic opening weekend gross, surpassing the $112 million gross of the 2024 film.
With such a strong opening at the box office, talk has already turned to the possibility of a third installment, which of course, would be a remake of the Wizard of Oz.
WB-subsidiary New Line has a remake in development from Nicole Kassell, director of the TV show Watchmen. At the same time, Warner Bros. also has a remake in the works from Black-ish creator Kenya Barris (which actually sounds closer to Diana Ross and Michael Jackson's The Wiz) .
But Universal doesn't have its own project in development, and given these box office numbers, that should change very quickly.
The original 1900 L. Frank Baum Wizard of Oz novel is part of the public domain, but Warner Bros. owns the copyright to the 1939 film adaptation, meaning anything original to the film and not part of the book, is owned by WB.
These elements would include the ruby slippers (they were silver in the book), the specific look of the characters from the movie, and the movie-exclusive 'It was all a dream" ending.