The remarkable success of WICKED has drawn attention not on for its record-breaking box office performance but also its potential in this year’s awards season. Up until WICKED’s release, the leading films in this year’s Best Picture race had been celebrated among critics and on the film festival circuit but with limited success at the box office.
These prime contenders have included EMILIA PEREZ, CONCLAVE, THE BRUTALIST and ANORA. This stands in contrast to the last two Best Picture winners EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE and OPPENHEIMER, which were popular with both critics and moviegoers. Some are now wondering if WICKED can follow in those film’s Oscar footsteps.
On track to generate $300 million in domestic ticket sales, WICKED will easily be the highest-grossing film in the awards race with all the others generating less than $50 million globally. The prospect of an awards season featuring art house films is a dicey proposition for the organizers of awards shows, fearing that general audiences may not be interested in tuning in to celebrate movies that many have not seen, or even heard about in some cases.
Coming out of the pandemic, the Academy Awards broadcast has improved its viewership every year, with the 2024 Oscars watched by 19.5 million viewers. Many point to interest in Best Picture nominees BARBIE and OPPENHEIMER as a central reason for this increase in viewership. WICKED’s standing as a Best Picture contender is rising on the awards prediction website Gold Derby together with that of its stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande and director Jon Chu in their respective categories.