Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in “Wicked: For Good.”
Universal Pictures
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s Wicked: For Good, the hotly anticipated sequel to the 2024 musical blockbuster Wicked, is tracking to earn $112 million if not significantly more when it opens in theaters in about three weeks, according to reports.
Directed by Wicked filmmaker Jon M. Chu, Wicked: For Good is the second half of the sprawling adaptation of the classic 2003 Broadway musical starring Idina Menzel and Kristen Chenoweth. Wicked, of course, is a prequel story to L. Frank Baum’s book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which was adapted into the film classic The Wizard of Oz.
Wicked arrived in theaters on Nov. 22, 2024, and earned $112.5 million in its opening weekend. The film went on to earn $473.2 million domestically and $282.3 million internationally for a worldwide box office tally of $755.5 million.
In projections released by Deadline on Thursday, Wicked: For Good — which opens in theaters on Nov. 21 — is tracking to open just as strong as its 2024 counterpart, which is somewhere in the vicinity of $112 million to $115 million in its first Friday to Sunday frame.
Deadline’s number is significantly smaller than Box Office Pro’s long-range projection for the film on Oct. 17, when the outlet forecast a healthy domestic opening of somewhere between $130 million to $155 million.
The production budget for Wicked: For Good, according to Variety, is $150 million before prints and advertising costs. The outlet also reported that the first Wicked film had the same price tag of $150 million before P&A.
‘Wicked: For Good’ Should Help Shake October’s Box Office Doldrums
In a sobering rundown by Comscore (via The Hollywood Reporter) on Thursday, the domestic box office tally for October 2025 is expected to be $425 million, making it the lowest haul in the past 27 years not including October of 2020, which was hampered by the pandemic.
Should the projections by Deadline and Box Office Pro for Wicked: For Good hold up, the boom in ticket sales will go a long way in righting the ship for theater owners and studios in November.
Of course, Wicked: For Good won’t be released for three weeks, but in the interim, theaters will get such potential blockbusters as Predator: Badlands on Nov. 7, and The Running Man and Now You See Me, Now You Don’t on Nov. 14.
After Wicked: For Good opens Nov. 21, Zootopia 2 will finish out the slate of November’s major film releases on Nov. 26 in an extended Thanksgiving weekend run.
The official summary for Wicked: For Good partially reads, “Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), now demonized as The Wicked Witch of the West, lives in exile, hidden within the Ozian forest while continuing her fight for the freedom of Oz’s silenced animals and desperately trying to expose the truth she knows about The Wizard (Jeff Goldblum).
“Glinda, meanwhile, has become the glamorous symbol of Goodness for all of Oz, living at the palace in Emerald City and reveling in the perks of fame and popularity. Under the instruction of Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), Glinda is deployed to serve as an effervescent comfort to Oz, reassuring the masses that all is well under the rule of The Wizard.”
Rated PG, Wicked: For Good — which also stars Jonathan Bailey, Marissa Bode, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Bronwyn James and the voices of Peter Dinklage and Sharon D. Clarke — opens in theaters on Nov. 21.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/timlammers/2025/10/30/wicked-for-good-early-tracking-points-to-112-million-plus-opening/
