One year after Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked” adaptation turned the Broadway hit into a cultural phenomenon, its sequel has enchanted U.S. moviegoers with the second-biggest opening weekend of 2025.
In a sluggish year at the domestic box office, “Wicked: For Good” opened with a smashing $150 million according to studio estimates, logging the biggest opening day of the year with $68.6 million on Friday. As of November, “A Minecraft Movie” still boasts the most impressive opening weekend of the year, with over $162 million.
While the critical reception of “For Good” was more mixed than the first film, audiences were still pining for the Land of Oz. The sequel received an A from theater pollster CinemaScore, and its audience meter on Rotten Tomatoes is glowing.
Picking up where “Wicked” left off, “For Good” tells the tale of Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) after she defies the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, settling into her role as the Wicked Witch of the West. Her foil and bestie, Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, is played by Ariana Grande. The two were both nominated for Oscars for their performances in the initial film.
“For Good” provides a boost to a box office that has slowed after a string of summer hits, such as “Superman” and the unexpectedly popular “Weapons.” It arrives after the worst October results since 1997, with a total of $425 million across all films in the domestic box office. The most popular film on Halloween weekend — “Black Phone 2” — only saw a little over $8 million in returns.
“This is a desperately needed victory, having ‘Wicked’ perform as well as it has and will continue to do,” Karie Bible, a media analyst at Exhibitor Relations, said. “In the age of streaming, and the pandemic accelerated that era, people are just pickier about what they chose to go out and see.”
The event-like “For Good” seems to offer the type of studio tentpole that gets people off the couch. According to PostTrak exit polls, women bolstered that opening number, making up about 71 percent of the audience. And with a PG rating, “For Good” arrives as movies targeted to the entire family — like the live-action remakes of “Lilo and Stitch” and “How to Train Your Dragon” — have seen steady success.
This opening weekend breaks the record — previously set by the first “Wicked” — for biggest opening ever for a Broadway adaptation, flying past “Les Misérables” and “Mamma Mia!” For musicals in general, “For Good” is the fifth-largest opening of all time, sitting behind the live-action remake of “The Lion King,” along with animated hits like “Moana 2,” “Frozen 2” and “Beauty and the Beast.”
The “Wicked” sequel’s success was supported by a string of early screenings: Last Monday saw exclusive shows for Amazon Prime members, then a stream of advance screenings available to the public on Wednesday and Thursday. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) By the time opening morning arrived, “For Good” had already seen nearly $30 million. In 78 markets outside of the U.S., “For Good” saw an additional $76 million in ticket sales, an improvement upon the first film.
The success is good but not unexpected news for Universal Pictures, with production costs of $300 million split between the two films. It comes as Universal’s parent company, Comcast, put in a bid to purchase Warner Bros. this weekend alongside offers from Paramount and Netflix.
Universal also allocated upward of $100 million for promotional efforts in tandem with “For Good.” The sequel’s campaign included a televised music special, a “Wicked” night on “Dancing with the Stars” and an Oz-themed episode of “Lego Masters.” Even with around 400 brand partnerships, from Dunkin’ to American Girl Dolls, the “For Good” promotional spree has been described as relatively subtle in comparison to the first film’s, according to Variety.
As film fans head toward the holiday blockbusters and Oscar season, “For Good” will have competition from the Thanksgiving release “Zootopia 2,” along with the likely hits “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash” arriving at end of the year.
But it’s very possible that “For Good” continues to pack cinemas through the end of 2025. Last year’s “Wicked” had an extraordinary 4.2 multiplier, which kept it in theaters from the November opening comfortably past Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, a big one for the January box office. If the conclusion to the “Wicked” saga puts up similar number, it could very easily overtake “Minecraft” as the most popular movie of the year.
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