- Wicked has had the most successful opening of any movie based on a Broadway musical
- Wicked has taken more than $150 million globally on its opening weekend
- Previous record had stood since 2012
Wicked has enjoyed a stellar opening weekend and its global box office takings means it has had the best opening of any movie based on a Broadway musical ever.
Biggest Broadway adaptation
Globally, Wicked took $164.2 million at the box office on its opening weekend, of which $114 million was taken in the US.
This figure is the biggest opening for a movie based on a Broadway show ever – both globally and in the US. The previous global best was for Les Miserables in 2012, which took $103 million.
Wicked stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, and Ariana Grande as her enemy-turned-friend Glinda. Jonathan Bailey also features as Fiyero, Jeff Goldblum as The Wizard, and Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible. A prequel to The Wizard of Oz, it tells the story of how the Wicked Witch of the West came to be.
In addition, Wicked has had the biggest global opening weekend this year for a non-sequel film. The previous best was $112 million, which was taken by Chinese film Yolo, which was released at Chinese New Year.
It was also the third biggest opening weekend for any film this year, behind only Deadpool & Wolverine (which took $211.4 million) and Inside Out 2 ($154.2 million).
Highly anticipated
Wicked was also one of the most anticipated films of the year. The stage musical has been a hit across the world, so its legions of fans were eager to see what a big screen version might look like.
Ahead of its opening, reviews for Wicked were somewhat mixed, with many praising the performance of Erivo and Grande, but others critical of the adaptation.
But of course, Wicked is just the first part of the story, and Part 2 will be with us this time next year, which will conclude the story of Elphaba and Glinda. Here is all we know about Wicked Part 2.
