“Wicked” weaves its magic in Australia, with a dominant box office performance.
According to Universal Pictures, the hit musical is a record-setter with more than $10.3 million accumulated in just five days, in-line with the feature film’s impressive global start.
“Wicked” debuts as Universal’s biggest opening weekend of 2024 in Australia, according to the major studio, and the biggest opening weekend for an adaptation of a stage musical.
The Australian release took flight thanks to the “Journey Through Oz” premiere tour, which started here and welcomed to the red carpet its stars Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Ethan Slater and Marissa Bode.
As part of the marketing push for the national premiere, Sydney’s Market Street was turned into a Munchkinland-inspired wonderland.
Meanwhile, the film scoops up $114 million in North America and an additional $50.2 million internationally for a global tally of $165 million over the weekend.
That outpaces the previous best opening for a film adaptation of a Broadway show, eclipsing the $103 million worldwide debut of “Les Misérables” from 2012.
The result is a “huge win” for movie theaters, writes Variety’s Rebecca Rubin, noting ticket sales have been “stubbornly behind 2023 and pre-pandemic times,” and for Universal, since the studio has “Wicked: Part Two” to come in 2025.
Here’s all the records from opening weekend:
Domestic
• Biggest opening weekend for film based on a Broadway adaption, ahead of “Into the Woods” ($31.05 million)
• Third-best debut of 2024 ahead of “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” ($111 million) and behind “Deadpool & Wolverine” ($211 million) and “Inside Out 2” ($154 million)
• Fourth-largest start in history for a musical, surpassing Disney’s 2023 “The Little Mermaid” remake ($95.57 million) and trailing “Frozen II” ($130 million)
International
• Biggest opening for film based on a Broadway adaption in both reported and like-for-like markets ahead of 2012’s “Les Miserables”
• Sixth-best debut of all time for a musical, above “Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again” ($43 million)
Global
• Biggest opening weekend for film based on a Broadway adaption, overtaking “Les Miserables” ($103 million)
• Best start for a non-sequel film in 2024
• Fifth-largest debut in history for a musical ahead of 2023’s “The Little Mermaid” ($163.6 million) and behind only 2019’s “The Lion King” ($446 million), 2017’s “Beauty and the Beast” ($358 million), 2019’s “Frozen 2” ($358 million) and 2019’s “Aladdin” ($213 million)