Universal Pictures’s Wicked: Part Two is going a few days earlier on Nov. 21, 2025 instead of the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Nov. 26, 2025.
The move is similar to what Universal did this year, getting Wicked: Part One off the Wednesday before Thanksgiving which has Disney’s Moana 2.
Wicked: Part One is now going Nov. 22, the same day as Paramount’s Gladiator 2. Exhibition, and the industry’s hope, is that some sort of Barbenheimer box office halo will take place again with both men and women passionately storming to see both films. That would be quite the movie-date night with men dressed up as gladiators, and women in pink fairy dresses and pointy hat witch get-up.
In the case of Wicked: Part Two, it was dated on the same day as Disney’s Zootopia 2.
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The Jon M. Chu-directed feature take of the hit Broadway musical, which is also produced by Marc Platt, follows the untold story of the young witches of Oz. Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) is misunderstood because of her unusual green skin and has yet to discover her true power, while Glinda (Ariana Grande), who is quite popular and gilded by privilege and ambition, has yet to discover her true heart. Other castmembers include Peter Dinklage as Dr. Dillamond, Michelle Yeoh as Shiz University’s regal headmistress Madame Morrible; Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, a roguish and carefree prince; Ethan Slater as Boq, an altruistic Munchkin student; Marissa Bode as Nessarose, Elphaba’s favored sister; and Jeff Goldblum as the legendary Wizard of Oz.
Wicked is a big swing for Universal, and they’ve been promoting it extensively during the NBCUniversal upfronts and Summer Olympics. While the stage musical has a run time of 2 hours and 45 minutes, Uni opted to separate both pics into two installments.