‘Wicked: For Good’ Enjoys Strong Opening Box Office

The second part of Jon M. Chu’s ambitious Oz-set film also notched the best debut for a movie adapted from a Broadway show, beating its predecessor.

Ariana Grande is Glinda in 'Wicked For Good', directed by Jon M. Chu.

Preview:

‘Wicked: For Good’ has launched successfully at the box office.
It made $150 million in North America.
The film also had the fourth most successful global start for a movie in 2025.

The signs and portents were already healthy around ‘Wicked: For Good,’ but the actual launch of the second movie adapted from the hit Broadway musical (and source novel) really showed some magic, and is now the most successful film adapted from a stage show.

Director Jon M. Chu’s second film, which followed last year’s ‘Wicked’ has begun its box office run as the second most successful movie debut this year, with $150 million in North America. That wasn’t enough to topple ‘A Minecraft Movie,’ which was still the best launch with $162 million this past April.

Still, assuming ‘For Good’ has legs (and the “A” grade CinemaScore from audiences suggests it might), this should easily be one of the biggest hits of the year).

And it’s a welcome boost for the box office in general, which has been languishing of late.

How did ‘Wicked: For Good’ do elsewhere?

(L to R) Ariana Grande is Glinda and Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba in 'Wicked For Good', directed by Jon M. Chu.

With an additional $76 million from overseas markets and more than $226 million globally, ‘For Good’ was the fourth-biggest launch this year, behind the likes of the live-action ‘Lilo & Stitch,’‘Jurassic World Rebirth’, and, of course, ‘A Minecraft Movie.’

Still, Universal will be happy with the result, and is far ahead of where ‘Wicked’ was upon its own opening last year ($164.2 million).

Here’s Franchise Entertainment Research’s David A. Gross on the movie’s success:

“This is a sensational opening. The only limitation, relatively speaking, is the series’ overseas performance. ‘The Wizard of Oz’ is a classic American story, with a natural domestic skew.”

What else happened at the box office this weekend?

(L to R) Shannon Gorman and Brendan Fraser in 'Rental Family'. Photo by James Lisle/Searchlight Pictures. © 2025 Searchlight Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

There was less to feel good about for other new releases.

‘Rental Family,’ which stars Brendan Fraser as a lonely, struggling actor who lands the not-so-plum job of playing stand-in roles for strangers in Japan, opened in fifth with $3.3 million. Yet it did at least enjoy strong reviews and positive word of mouth, which might help it stick around.

Action thriller ‘Sisu: Road to Revenge’ landed at sixth place with $2.6 million, behind already soft estimates of $3 million. That’s less than 2023’s prior instalment, ‘Sisu’, which opened to $3.3 million.

‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’, the third instalment of the magician heist movies, slipped to second place on $9.1 million, a 56% drop from its debut. ‘Predator: Badlands’ was pushed to third, earning $6.5 million in its third weekend, while ‘The Running Man’ lagged behind in fourth place and $6.1 million.