‘Wicked: For Good’: Box Office

【Title/标题】Box Office: ‘Wicked: For Good’ Earns Huge $30.8Million in Previews, Highest of the Year【Source/来源】Media Outlet/媒体：VarietyWritten by/作者：Jordan Moreau【Background Music/背景音乐】For Good - Cynthia Erivo & Ariana Grande【Transcript/文稿】“Wicked” is casting a spell over the box office once again.Universal’s musical sequel “Wicked: For Good” has made $30.8 million inpreviews at the box office, marking the biggest pre-opening haul of the year.However, the record comes with a caveat. Usually, previews grosses come justfrom Thursday screenings, but Universal rolled out the film a few days early.Monday fan screenings sponsored by Amazon Prime brought in $6.1 million,while additional Wednesday showings made $6.5 million. Thursday previews,including double screenings of “Wicked” and “For Good,” made $18.2 million.The year’s previous record holder was Warner Bros.’ “Superman,” which earned$22.5 million in Thursday previews before making $125 million in its openingweekend.“Wicked: For Good,” the highly anticipated conclusion to last year’s pink-and-green sensation, is on track to make between $150 million and $180 million thisweekend. It could nab the biggest box office debut of the year. Currently, therecord belongs to Warner Bros.’ video game adaptation “A Minecraft Movie,”which made $10.6 million in Thursday previews on the way to a $162 millionlaunch. Universal is playing it safe and predicting a $125 million opening thisweekend, but fan excitement is high after Ariana Grande’s Glinda and CynthiaErivo’s Elphaba became pop culture mainstays last fall.Last year, director Jon M. Chu’s original “Wicked” hauled in $19.2 million inpreviews and grew to a $112.5 million opening weekend in the same pre-Thanksgiving weekend. A year later, the cast, including Jonathan Bailey, EthanSlater, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Bowen Yang and more, finish off the storyof the “Wizard of Oz” prequel. The first “Wicked” helped power last year’sThanksgiving box office to a record $420 million alongside “Gladiator II” and“Moana 2.” Disney’s family-friendly “Zootopia 2” opens next week, and theanimated sequel and “Wicked: For Good” will try to reach similar box officeheights through the holiday.Also opening this weekend is Sony’s action sequel “Sisu: Road to Revenge,”which is projected for a $3 million debut and made $575,000 in Thursday previews. There’s also Searchlight’s “Rental Family,” starring Brendan Fraser — also expected to launch in the low single digits.