Wicked: For Good Sets Box Office Record, Joins Avengers and Star Wars Elite
Wicked: For Good roared into the record books with a spellbinding $30.8 million in domestic previews, debuting at No. 10 all-time and taking its place alongside Avengers: Endgame and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
I did not have a Wicked sequel muscling its way into the superhero-and-Star Wars preview club on my 2024 bingo card, but here we are. Wicked: For Good just had an enormous domestic preview haul, critics are bickering, fans are screaming, Ariana got COVID, and the Wizard is Jeff Goldblum-level weird. Let’s unpack.
A massive preview flex
Wicked: For Good pulled in $30.8 million from domestic previews, which plants it at No. 10 on the all-time list. That list is usually a fortress of capes, lightsabers, and wands, so a Broadway-born musical cracking it is a legit surprise.
- 1. Avengers: Endgame — $60M
- 2. The Force Awakens — $57M
- 3. Spider-Man: No Way Home — $50M
- 4. The Last Jedi — $45M
- 5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 — $43.5M
- 6. The Rise of Skywalker — $40M
- 7. Avengers: Infinity War — $39M
- 8. Deadpool & Wolverine — $38.5M
- 9. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — $36M
- 10. Wicked: For Good — $30.8M
Starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo and adding two brand-new Stephen Schwartz songs, the sequel clearly connected out of the gate.
Critics vs. audiences: the split
Early Rotten Tomatoes scores tell two different stories. Critics sit at 70%, which is notably below the first film’s 88%. Audiences? A very loud 96%.
The temperature check from reviewers is all over the map:
— The Hollywood Reporter singled out Grande as the movie’s emotional center, saying her Glinda adds layers and that a press screening had people openly sobbing by the end of the title track.
— Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri says director Jon M. Chu keeps it intimate instead of drowning everything in spectacle, leaning hard into tenderness.
— The BBC’s Caryn James found For Good more engaging than the first if you’re already sold on this world.
— The Associated Press pushed back, calling the movie visually overwhelming and too stagey for the big screen, though it credits the cast for making the feelings land.
— FandomWire’s Cole Groth loved the momentum but flagged the plotting as quick and a bit knotted up.
— USA Today’s Brian Truitt basically called it the whole wicked package and shouted out Jeff Goldblum’s delightfully odd Wizard.
The movie itself
This chapter doubles down on the messy, complicated tie between Elphaba (Erivo) and Glinda (Grande). The first film banked $758 million worldwide and landed Oscars for costume and production design; this one tweaks the musical DNA with those two new Schwartz tracks and a softer, more character-first approach from Chu. If you were hoping for wall-to-wall razzle-dazzle, the tonal shift might catch you off guard.
Money math (because it matters)
Industry chatter pegs the budget around $150 million. By the usual studio math, that puts break-even somewhere near $375 million. With that preview number and the holiday runway, that target suddenly looks pretty reasonable. Whether it ultimately clears the first movie’s $758 million worldwide is the big question.
Press tour chaos, then COVID
Right as the global press grind wrapped, Grande revealed on Instagram Stories that she tested positive for COVID-19, posting a behind-the-scenes shot and joking it was taken right before she got the bad news. That capped a tour that already had one seriously tense moment in Singapore when a fan broke through security and rushed at Grande on the red carpet. Cynthia Erivo stepped in instantly, with Michelle Yeoh moving in to help shield her too.
"I wasn’t really thinking. I just wanted to make sure my friend was safe. I’m sure he didn’t mean us harm, but you never know with those things, and I wanted to make sure that she was OK. That was my first instinct."
The road ahead
Wicked: For Good opened worldwide November 21, just ahead of Thanksgiving. Industry forecasts are aiming sky-high: $120M-plus domestic and north of $200M worldwide through the debut frame, which would mark the biggest opening ever for a Broadway musical adaptation.
It’s now playing everywhere. Streaming details will come after the theatrical window, so settle in — this one’s going to be a conversation for a while.