Theater curtains with dramatic lighting

Photo by Kyle Head on Unsplash

The witches of Oz are making magic at the box office and honestly we all saw this coming. Wicked: For Good opened to a record-smashing $147 million in North America this Thanksgiving weekend according to The Hollywood Reporter. Globally thats $223 million in its first weekend. The biggest debut EVER for a Broadway adaptation.

Let that sink in. Ever. In the history of Broadway movies. Les Misérables could never.

The sequel picks up right where Part One left off with Elphaba fully transformed into the “Wicked Witch” and Glinda navigating her new role in the Wizard’s court. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are back doing what they do best – making us sob with their voices while looking absolutely stunning in increasingly elaborate costumes.

The first Wicked movie last year was already a phenomenon. It crossed $700 million globally according to NBCUniversal and became the highest-grossing stage musical adaptation of all time beating out Mamma Mia. The sing-along screenings were packed. The marketing was relentless. Everyone and their mama was doing the Elphaba green makeup tutorials on TikTok.

So Part Two had massive expectations and somehow it delivered beyond them. The CinemaScore was an A. Rotten Tomatoes audience score sitting at 95%. Kids are absolutely obsessed. I saw families in full Wicked costumes at my screening – little girls in pink Glinda dresses, teens with green face paint, parents who clearly got dragged along but were crying by the end anyway.

What Jon M. Chu did with these films is honestly remarkable. He took a beloved stage show that people have very specific memories and expectations of and translated it to screen in a way that satisfies the theater kids while also bringing in new audiences. The decision to split it into two movies was controversial at first but it let them take their time with the story instead of rushing through the second act like so many musical adaptations do.

Ariana Grande specifically has been getting Oscar buzz which if you told 2014 me that the girl from Victorious would be nominated for an Academy Award I would have needed to sit down. But her Glinda is genuinely great. She committed to the role completely and you can tell she loves this character deeply. The moment in “Popular” where she almost breaks character laughing? That wasnt acting. Thats just Ariana having the time of her life.

And Cynthia Erivo. Lord. That woman can SING. The raw emotion she brings to Elphaba’s journey from outcast to revolutionary is devastating. When she hits those notes in “Defying Gravity” and “No Good Deed” you feel it in your chest. Broadway heads have been saying for years that Erivo is a once-in-a-generation talent and these movies are proving it to mainstream audiences.

The box office success is also good news for movie musicals as a genre. For a while there Hollywood was convinced that musicals were dead unless they had “Greatest Showman” vibes. But Wicked proved that if you adapt the material with care and cast the right people audiences will show up. Maybe well get more Broadway adaptations that actually do justice to the source material.

Part Two also features all the songs that werent in the first movie – “Thank Goodness,” “As Long As Youre Mine,” “No Good Deed,” and of course “For Good” which is gonna have every theater kid in America weeping into their popcorn. The emotional payoff of watching these two characters complete their arcs is worth all the buildup from Part One.

If you havent seen it yet go. Take tissues. Prepare to be emotionally compromised for several hours afterward. And if youve already seen it… yeah you know what Im talking about. That ending. THAT ENDING.

The witches won. Broadway won. Musical theater kids everywhere won. And I am absolutely going to see this again next weekend because one viewing was simply not enough.