By Janet H. Cho

Movie audiences were eagerly anticipating the second half of last year's Wicked, giving the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical a record-breaking $226 million opening weekend through Sunday.

Domestic box office sales of $150 million beat expectations and sets Hollywood up for a strong end to an otherwise lackluster year.

The film, directed by Jon M. Chu and starring Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jeff Goldblum, and Michelle Yeoh, brought in an average of $36,452 a theater across 4,115 screens in the U.S. and Canada, according to Comscore. That includes $25.3 million on IMAX screens.

The PG-rated tale of the unlikely sisterhood between Elphaba and Glinda generated another $76 million in international box office sales.

Wicked: For Good helped deliver a $185.5 million box office weekend after a disappointing October. For the industry, domestic box office sales have reached $7.49 billion for the year through Sunday, up 3.3% compared with this point last year, Comscore said.

Expectations were high after last year's Wicked delivered a $114 million domestic opening weekend and $164.2 million globally. During a Nov. 5 conference call, AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron said advance bookings for the second installment were "through the roof."

The 2-hour, 40-minute film went on to sell $758.7 million worldwide, including almost $475 million domestically and $283.7 million internationally, according to BoxOfficeMojo. Wicked: For Good clocks in at 2 hours, 17 minutes.

Coming in second for the weekend was Lionsgate Films' mystery thriller Now You See Me, Now You Don't, which sold $9.1 million in its second weekend. The film, the third installment to the 2103 film Now You See Me and 2016 sequel Now You See Me 2, has sold $36.8 million domestically since it opened on Nov. 14. But like its predecessors, the film has been especially popular with international audiences.

Now You See Me, Now You Don't has sold an estimated $146.2 million internationally in 81 markets.

The 2013 film sold $117.7 million domestically and $234 million internationally, for a global total of $351.7 million, according to BoxOfficeMojo. The 2016 installment sold $65.1 million domestically but $269.8 million internationally, for a global total of $334.9 million.

20th Century Studios' sci-fi thriller Badlands: Predator came in third place in its third weekend, with nearly $6.3 million through Sunday and $159.6 million globally year to date. In comparison, Sony Pictures Classics' historical drama Nuremberg, also in its third weekend, sold only $1.2 million in its third weekend, and has racked up $11 million cumulatively.

In fourth place, Paramount Studios' dystopian thriller The Running Man sold $5.8 million in its second weekend, for a domestic total of $27 million. Its global sales are an estimated $48.3 million.

Only two other two films that opened this weekend cracked the top 10: Searchlight Pictures' Rental Family, a PG-13-rated comedy starring Brendan Fraser as an American actor in Tokyo working for a Japanese "rental family" agency, with $3.3 million; and Sony Pictures' Sisu: Road to Revenge, an R-rated war drama, with $2.6 million.

A24's comedy Eternity and Disney's animated sequel Zootopia 2 both open on Wednesday, along with Disney's rerelease of The Beatles Anthology.

Write to Janet H. Cho at janet.cho@dowjones.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 23, 2025 14:17 ET (19:17 GMT)

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