UPDATED: Universal’s Wicked is sitting pretty in its global debut, now with a projected $165M through Sunday. As expected, the bulk of the bucks going into the witches’ cauldron is coming from North America, with the anticipated split at $117M domestic and $48M from the international box office.
Globally, Wicked will see the biggest opening weekend for a film based on a Broadway adaption, ahead of Les Miserables ($103M); the 6th biggest opening weekend of 2024 worldwide; and the 4th biggest opening weekend ever globally for a musical, ahead of The Little Mermaid ($163.6M).
Internationally, Wicked is landing within the pre-opening range. The film is out in only 61 overseas markets, repping 65% of the offshore footprint — such majors as France, China, Germany and Japan have yet to release the Jon M. Chu-directed first installment of the Broadway musical adaptation.
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Still, in like-for-like launch markets, Wicked is on its way to the top start for a film based on a Broadway adaption, ahead of Les Miserables. The $48M overseas estimate also reps the 6th biggest opening weekend of all time at the international box office for a musical ahead of Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again ($43M); and the 7th biggest opening weekend ever overseas for a musical in like-for-like markets at today’s dollars ahead of Wonka ($45.7M).
The UK is under the spell of Cynthia Erivo‘s Elphaba and Ariana Grande’s Glinda as the lead offshore market with an expected $15M+ through Sunday. The UK & Ireland launched on Friday with a huge $4.9M for the day across 2,250 screens, the clear No. 1 title in the market with a 63% share of total box office. This marks the 2nd biggest opening Friday of the year (behind Deadpool & Wolverine). It’s also Universal’s biggest opening day since No Time To Die launched in September 2021, as well as Universal’s 5th biggest opening Friday of all time. IMAX delivered the highest-grossing opening Friday in the format for a PG film.
Ahead of the Friday opening in the market, Vue founder and CEO Tim Richards noted “record-breaking pre-sales for Wicked,” which were “tracking in line with Barbie’s last year.”
Elsewhere, Wicked is off to a No. 1 start in Australia, On Thursday it achieved the 3rd biggest opening day of 2024. Korea, which tends to lean into musicals, is at $3.3M through Saturday, with a strong 94% CGV Egg score.
Mexico opened Thursday delivering the biggest ever opening day for a stage musical adaptation and is the clear No. 1 title in the market.
There’s also, of course, the continued overseas play of Paramount and Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II to take into consideration here. The sequel began overseas rollout last weekend (ahead of domestic this session) and will be well above $200M globally through Sunday.
We will have a full international box office report tomorrow.