“Wicked” is very, very popular – on the big screen, and now on video on demand. In a rare show of transparency regarding its final earnings, Universal said the big-budget musical grossed $26 million on its first day and $70 million in its first week of digital release in the United States and Canada.
“Wicked” premiered on the Home Entertainment Channel on December 31 for $30 to purchase and $20 to rent the original or sing-along version of the film. According to the studio, the Broadway adaptation achieved the largest first day and first week of sales of any international theatrical title. For comparison, the studio’s second-biggest video-on-demand (VOD) launch was 2023’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which grossed $44 million from its first week in rentals and digital sales.
And Universal expects Oz-related fortunes to grow: Wicked still has more than two months of exclusivity on home entertainment platforms before the song-and-dance extravaganza becomes available on Peacock, the streaming service owned by its parent company, NBCUniversal. . Then there’s “Wicked: For Good,” which chronicles the second act of the Broadway show and opens in theaters a year after the original, on November 21.
Wicked: Part One has already grossed $682 million at the worldwide box office since its theatrical release on November 22. Although box office reports are common, bottom line revenues such as premium VOD are either rarely reported — or done so in an aggressive manner. road.
Hollywood studios have acknowledged (after collectively experimenting during the early days of the coronavirus) that a theatrical release is vital to propel a film into the zeitgeist, thus boosting ancillary revenues like PVOD. Universal executives, for example, have said publicly that they view premium video on demand as a complement rather than a replacement for theatrical release. To be clear: “Wicked” made another $10 million domestically in its eighth weekend on the big screen despite being available for purchase or rent at home. But digital platforms are attractive because media companies keep about 80% of revenue online compared to about 50% of box office revenue. In the case of Wicked, the studio had to keep about 65% of its box office ticket sales, according to people familiar with the matter.
Universal has been the most aggressive among traditional movie studios in experimenting with the theatrical window and finding ways to optimize a movie’s big-screen time before offering it to home entertainment consumers. The studio broke industry precedent in March 2020 by deciding to release “Trolls World Tour” simultaneously on digital platforms and in cinemas (although none except drive-ins were open at the time). After the first few weeks, at the height of coronavirus lockdowns, Universal estimated that five million people had rented “Trolls World Tour,” generating roughly $100 million in sales. Since then, Universal has settled for roughly 17 days of big-screen exclusivity for smaller titles and five weekends of release for tentpoles (75 to 90 days of theatrical exclusivity were typical before the pandemic) — with premium video sales counted at Demand is more than $1.5 billion so far. The faster pivot to small screen also allows the studio to save marketing money.
Jon M. Chu directed the PG-rated Wicked, which stars Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, and Jonathan Bailey. Set before, during, and after the events of “The Wizard of Oz,” the story tells the origins of Galinda Grundy (later known as Glinda the Good) and Elphaba Erivo (eventually dubbed the Wicked Witch of the West) before Dorothy lands in Oz. And wander down the yellow brick road. The film became the sixth highest-grossing film of 2024 and the highest-grossing Broadway adaptation in box office history.