If you regularly follow box office numbers, you might be asking yourself: what’s the deal with ‘Wicked: For Good’? Why the sudden plunge?
The film, which was coming off a $61M weekend, had the worst post-Thanksgiving drop for a 2000+ screen wide release in box office history, managing only $16M from Friday through Sunday.
John M. Chu’s sequel to last year’s gigantic hit also failed to reach the $300M mark this weekend, falling short at $297M after sluggish numbers all week. These aren’t necessarily bad numbers — in many cases, they’d be great — but the original earned $474M domestically, and this one will likely not even hit the $350M mark. That would imply a -$125M difference in cumulative gross between Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. What gives?
It’s been 15 days since its release, and the sequel might be slipping out of saturation mode. The reviews weren’t great either — did they scare off a portion of the original’s audience? Much like the Broadway play, the first half is the more iconic portion of the story.
That whopping $150M opening weekend it garnered was boosted by enormous hype, presales, and fandom; the film’s debut was almost maxed out, frontloaded, whatever you want to call it. Once those core fans had seen it, fewer casual viewers — especially amid competition — returned.
So, no, ‘Wicked: For Good’ is not a flop. Even with the slump, it’s still grossing hundreds of millions worldwide. The budget wasn’t particularly massive either — around $150M — but the spell the first film cast on audiences hasn’t been duplicated this time.