Giles Keyte / Universal Pictures
"Wicked" broke three records topping the box office this weekend with $164 million in ticket sales and surpassing its blockbuster rival "Gladiator II."
"Wicked" broke the record for the biggest opening weekend for a film based on a Broadway adaptation domestically and globally. It trumped the previous record-holders "Les Misérables" and "Into the Woods."
The new movie musical also has the best opening for a non-sequel film this year. "Wicked" was the third biggest debut in 2024 coming in behind the two highest-grossing films this year: "Deadpool & Wolverine" and "Inside Out 2."
"Gladiator II," pitted against "Wicked" because they share the same US release date, came second in box office charts this weekend, making $106 million in ticket sales.
If "Wicked" continues to succeed, it could become the only non-sequel film in the top 12 highest-grossing films list of 2024.
The Broadway adaptation's success has established the movie in Hollywood annals. Here's how it compares to cinema's biggest blockbuster musicals.
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
"Les Misérables," the highest-grossing film based on a Broadway adaptation, grossed $442 million, but other non-Broadway-based musicals have made more than that.
The 2019 live-action remake of "The Lion King" musical is the 10th highest-grossing film of all time, with $1.6 billion in ticket sales. "Frozen," "Frozen II," "Beauty and the Beast," and "Aladdin" have also grossed over a billion dollars.
All of these films, except "Frozen," grossed between $200 and $450 million in their debut weekend.
Rob Mitchell, the director of theatrical insights at film industry research firm Gower Street Analytics, told Business Insider that he expected "Wicked" to exceed "Mamma Mia," which made $611 million in worldwide ticket sales per Box Office MoJo. Mitchell doubted the Oz adaption will reach the same heights at "The Lion King."
He said the fanbase of the stage musical, Ariana Grande's star power, and the multi-generational appeal of the Oz story were behind the movie's success.
"The main reason will just be that it is a superb production," Mitchell added. "It's the type of big-screen spectacle that cinema was made for."
Walt Disney Studios
With "Moana 2" premiering this week, "Wicked" has a new competitor at the box office going into Thanksgiving weekend.
Disney movies have topped six of the last eight Thanksgiving box office weekends.
The first "Moana," which was the top-grossing film over the 2016 Thanksgiving weekend has become a children's classic. It brought in $643 million globally according to Box Office MoJo, putting it in the top 10 highest grossing musical movies.
Nielsen, an audience measurement firm, reported in January that Moana was the most-watched movie on a streaming platform in the US in 2023, with over 11.3 billion minutes streamed.
With three highly popular franchises in cinemas, consumers will likely be divided between them.
Regardless of incoming competition, Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst for Comscore, told Business Insider via email that the success of "Wicked" and "Gladiator II" is a "gift" to theaters after a rocky year shadowed by release delays and underperforming movies.
"It has set into motion the potential for a very strong revenue generating month of December" he said, adding that both movies were well-positioned for "long-term playability on big screens."
