Wicked 2 Set to Sweep the Weekend Box Office, Leaving Newcomers in the Dust
After months in a slump, the box office may finally find its voice: Wicked: For Good is set to soar to No. 1 this weekend, steamrolling every newcomer.
Remember when making Wicked into two movies felt like Universal begging the box office gods to smite them? If the first one face-planted, they still had a whole second film sitting there. Bold move. Then Wicked opened to $112 million and marched to over $474 million domestic. So yeah, not a disaster. Now the sequel, Wicked: For Good, is stepping in at just the right time, because the last couple months at the movies have been pretty sleepy.
Wicked: For Good is the one to beat
The chatter is that Wicked: For Good could snag the biggest opening of the year. That means it has to leap over A Minecraft Movie at $162 million. Possible? Sure. But I think the release timing matters: Thanksgiving is around the corner, and a lot of parents will wait to bring the kids until the holiday. Translation: slightly softer initial blast, stronger legs.
My read: Wicked: For Good opens big but not bonkers at around $140 million, then barely dips week-to-week once we hit Turkey Day. Not a bad trade-off.
The rest of the field
Meanwhile, everything else looks like jockeying for leftovers. Now You See Me, Now You Don’t surprised last weekend, but figure a 50–60% drop to about $10 million. The Running Man is in rougher shape — the buzz is people hate the ending — so call it a 60%+ slide to around $7 million. Predator: Badlands should hang in with about $6 million, and action sequel Sisu: Road to Revenge likely rounds out the top five at roughly $5 million.
My weekend predictions
- Wicked: For Good — $140 million
- Now You See Me, Now You Don’t — $10 million
- The Running Man — $7 million
- Predator: Badlands — $6 million
- Sisu: Road to Revenge — $5 million
What are you seeing this weekend? Drop your pick below.