The musical of Jon M. Chu “Wizard of Oz” Riff “Wicked”, based on the musical pop-U-Lar Broadway by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, was not terribly revised in the pages of / film, cited By this author as a pasty mess, led by two strangely impartial lead performances by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. The review has thought about the reason why CHU, which can normally make fascinating and energetic musicals like “Step Up” and “in the Heights”, decided to be sheltered by the design of production Occupied and a dull and eternally stinking fantastic mythology.
My opinion, however, is certainly the aberrant value of “wicked”. On January 23, CHU’s film was nominated for 10 Oscars, whose best film, the best actress (for Erivo), the best support actress (for large) and the best production design. The film was also generally well revised, which obtained an approval rating of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes (on the basis of 380 critics). More importantly, the massive cult of the faithful of Broadway flocked to see the CHU cinematographic version, leading the blockbuster of $ 150 million to collect more than $ 710 million at the box office. / Criticism of the film may have been negative, but that did not prevent people from seeing them.
It should certainly be noted that the musical “bad” has already beaten several Broadway records. At the time of writing these lines, it is the longest fourth show in Broadway’s story, by doing only “Phantom of the Opera”, the 1996 renewal of “Chicago” and “The Lion King”. In terms of brushes, the show is the second best paid Broadway show, having collected $ 1.1 billion to date. Only “The Lion King” beat him.
And, because of the CHU film, the interest was rejected in the production of Broadway. A Playbill article Note that during Christmas Week in 2024, “Wicked” became the first Broadway show to have won more than $ 5 million in a single week. It was the most profitable week that the Great White Way had since 2018, before the pandemic.
Wicked is the first show in Broadway history to win $ 5 million in one week
The holder of the previous record was, once again, “The Lion King”, which won $ 4.3 million in 2018. Playbill took care to note, however, that the high ticket prices played a major factor in musical transport “wicked”. The average price of a ticket to see “Wicked” on Broadway was $ 290.61 per person. It is even higher than the average of $ 279.00 for “The Lion King” or the $ 273.00 for “Hamilton”. These ticket prices are increasing compared to a few years ago, probably in response to the Hit Broadway taken from Covid.
Fans, however, are willing to put the dough regularly to the dough, and “Wicked” was held strong. The original show won three Tonys and made ultra-stars of its main actresses Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth (who both have cams in Chu’s film). The show has a massive cult of passionate theater children, and you can hear its more hot numbers in karaoke bars to date. The film was therefore a complement to the existing popularity of the Broadway Show, shaking in a gigantic base of fans to see their favorite musical in a cinematographic medium.
Presumably, these fans then spent $ 290 to review their favorite program. The film was probably an introduction to “Wicked” for many public members, and they, now curious (and potentially curious to see how the story ends), also went to see the show as soon as they could. The result is a 21-year-old box office record after the program opened.
CHU’s film is a prolonged dramatization of the first act of “Wicked”, leaving the public on a cliffhanger. On November 21, 2025, in theaters, was followed by CHU, “Wicked: For Good”, a dramatization of the second act of the show. If the first film won $ 700 million and has managed to win 10 Oscar nominations, there is every reason to believe that “for good” will repeat or even go beyond this success.
And then, in the weeks following its opening, Broadway Ushers will have to enter their combat positions.
