‘Wicked – Part One’: All The Box Office Records Broken

deadline.com:

Broadway musicals adapted to the screen are an erratic genre at the box office despite Miramax’s multi-Oscar winning Chicago reviving the long-dormant Hollywood genre back in 2002 with $306.8M WW.

Yet for every Les Miserables ($442.7M) hit from Universal, there were massive misfires like Dear Evan Hansen and Cats. This weekend, Universal defied the odds with their feature take of the $5 billion-grossing Broadway stage show, Wicked, opening to $114M domestic, $164.2M worldwide.

Here’s all the records that Wicked broke in its opening weekend: Biggest Global and Domestic Opening for a Movie Based on a Broadway Show, beating the worldwide opening of 2012’s Les Miserables ($103M) and the domestic opening of Disney’s 2014 Into the Woods ($31M). Biggest Global and Domestic Opening for Ariana Grande ever, Wicked being her first feature tentpole debut.

And therefore arguably…. Biggest Domestic Opening for a Pop Star, with Wicked besting the first films sold around the likeness of such performing artists as Lady Gaga (A Star Is Born at $42.5M), Harry Styles (Don’t Worry Darling at $19.3M), Britney Spears (Crossroads at $14.5M), Taylor Swift (Cats at $6.6M), Madonna (Desperately Seeking Susan at $1.5M), and the entire domestic gross of Michael Jackson’s The Wiz ($21M unadjusted for inflation). Biggest Global and Domestic Opening Ever for Cynthia Erivo, besting the $12M stateside start of 2018’s Widows. Biggest Global and Domestic Opening Ever for filmmaker Jon M.