October was a low month at the box office, but the Witches of Oz are coming to magic up the start of a blockbuster end to the year. While the summer has always been seen as blockbuster season, the last two months of the year have previously delivered some of the biggest movies of all time, including the Lord of the Rings movies, Harry Potter, and Avatar: The Way of Water. While Avatar: Fire and Ash is expected to become the year’s biggest hit in December, the release of Wicked: For Good is giving the box office a much needed boost with a massive opening weekend expected.
Wicked opened in 2024 with a $164 million opening weekend across the world. The film went on to become the highest grossing movie based on a Broadway show ever, ending its theatrical run on $758 million. To put it in context, that was 10 times more than the disastrous release of Cats earned in 2019. Now it looks like any records set by Wicked are about to be surpassed by the conclusion of its story in Wicked: For Good.
The decision to split Wicked into two movies was seen as a huge risk. Broadway musical adaptations have been incredibly divisive over the years, with even the biggest and longest running shows being turned into panned, lackluster movie productions. Following the catastrophic Cats, it seemed that no studio would want to throw that kind of money at a musical adaptation again…yet here we are.
According to current projections, Wicked: For Good is expected to surpass $200 million on its opening weekend. Clearly this would not only break another record, but would potentially set one that is unlikely to ever be broken. If the projections hold, then the opening weekend boost will make it likely that the film will surpass its predecessor and make Wicked and Wicked: For Good the two highest grossing Broadway musical adaptations ever.
‘Wicked: For Good’ Has Received an Unpopular Rotten Tomatoes Score
Let’s be clear on one thing. Wicked: For Good will be one of the biggest movies of the year, and audiences who have seen the film on its early release have already been singing its praises to the tune of a 97% Popcornmeter score – 2% higher than the first movie – and has been labelled as a “dream come true” for fans of the musical who sometimes feel the second half of the story is a little rushed and anti-climactic after the literal showstopper of “Defying Gravity.”
However, critics have not been as happy with the second movie by a long way. The original movie scored 88% on the Tomatometer, but Wicked: For Good comes in at just 72%. While still fresh, it is a long drop from Wicked’s superior score. The main crux of the problem comes down to the reason Jon M. Chu split the movie into two parts in the first place – “Defying Gravity” is one of the hardest acts to follow. Several reviews have called the story a “mess,” while others lament the lack of Wicked’s banging tunes. In all though, it doesn’t seem to matter one bit to audiences, and Wicked: For Good is already off to a flying start.
- Release Date
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November 21, 2025
- Runtime
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137 Minutes
- Writers
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Winnie Holzman, Dana Fox, Gregory Maguire
- Producers
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Marc Platt, David Stone