This week, Universal opened up advance ticket sales for its upcoming musical fantasy WICKED, which will begin its U.S. theatrical run on November 22nd. Initial interest has been very strong, which bodes well for the long-term financial prospects of the movie. WICKED is a film adaptation of the 2003 Broadway musical by the same name, one of the longest-running and most profitable Broadway shows in history.
According to Fandango, the first day of advance ticket sales for WICKED produced the second-highest number of tickets sold for any movie this year. It trailed only DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, which went on to earn $211 million in its opening three days. An opening weekend box office for WICKED in that same ballpark would be considered a wild success and would represent the best performance of any movie over the Thanksgiving Holiday since the pandemic arrived in 2020.
WICKED is only one of several high-profile movies that will be playing this Thanksgiving. Disney’s MOANA 2 comes soon afterward, on Wednesday, November 27th. While the first MOANA was only a modest hit by Pixar’s standards, box office expectations are even higher for MOANA 2, given the cult status that Moana has achieved on Disney+.
MOANA has been the most widely viewed movie on any streaming platform in 2023, far ahead of other animated Disney films such as FROZEN and ENCANTO, and other popular titles including THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE and all the MINIONS movies.
In addition to these two major releases, Ridley Scott’s GLADIATOR 2 will share the stage with WICKED in its November 22nd opening. Universal shifted the release date for WICKED up from November 27th, to steer clear of head-to-head competition with MOANA 2.
But that change put it alongside GLADIATOR 2, which some have thought may represent an attempt to replicate the success of the same-day releases of BARBIE and OPPENHEIMER on July 21, 2023, given that the two films will appeal to quite different demographics. No matter how it plays out, the drumbeat of new movie releases with broad commercial appeal should serve the industry well over the remaining 2 ½ months of 2024.