It’s now more than 20 years since the hit musical ‘Wicked’ premiered on Broadway. Now, its big screen version marked the biggest opening weekend for a movie based on a Broadway production. Actually, it is project to have the top-grossing opening weekend of any Broadway musical adaption ever in the UK and Ireland, as well as North America.
“Wicked” topped the box office with a worldwide opening of $164 million. Domestically, the film has earned $114 million so far. That overtakes the previous holder, “Les Misérables,” which brought in $103m globally on its opening weekend in 2012.
In North America, where Gladiator II also opened on Friday, this was the strongest weekend at the box office before the Thanksgiving holiday since 2013, the Box Office Company said. Director, Jon M. Chu decided to handle this high-flying adaptation with a “go big or go home” attitude.
The musical had the third biggest opening in the US this year- after Deadpool & Wolverine with $211m in July and Inside Out 2 with $154m in June. It is important to note that the audience tilted heavily female- 72% – and 67% were over the age of 25, which is a “massive victory” for Universal Box office’s, Daniel Loria said.
“We needed to shoot for the moon,” said Chu. “I didn’t know if the studio would be down, but in a weird way we all had to jump together. We’ll see but we’re gonna go for it.”“Wicked means so much to me,” said Chu. “To flip the story, what does a hero look like? What does a villain look like? Those were important themes that needed to be addressed.”
Chu says he knew he was on to something when his stars, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, first sang together. It was in his living room, with composer Stephen Schwarz at the piano. Cast members also included Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard and Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero.The two actors couldn’t find enough kind objectives to say about their director. “Dear, generous, brilliant, creative,” said Goldblum.
The coming weeks will determine if “Wicked” can take in the same worldwide totals of Broadway film adaptations such as “Les Misérables ($442m) and Chicago ($306m). However, Mr. Loria predicted that Moana 2, out on Wednesday in the US, could occupy the top spot of the three films in North America.
