Wicked proves popular as opening set to be biggest for Broadway film

Wicked is projected to have the top-grossing opening weekend of any Broadway musical adaptation ever in the UK and Ireland, as well as North America.

The adaptation of the hit musical is expected to rake in $114m (£90.6m) on its opening weekend in North America, according to data firm the Boxoffice Company.

That overtakes the previous record holder, Les Miserables, which brought in $103m globally on its opening weekend in 2012.

In the UK and Ireland, the film is forecast to earn $17.6m (£14m) this weekend, making it the top-grossing opening weekend of 2024.

In North America, where Gladiator II also opened on Friday, this was the strongest weekend at the box office before the Thanksgiving holiday since 2013, the Boxoffice Company said.

The musical Wicked, based on a book inventing the backstory of the Wicked Witch of the West, premiered on Broadway in 2003 and has been running on the West End for two decades.

In North America, the film adaptation raked in $46.48m (£37m) on Friday (the data also includes Thursday premieres), and $36m on Saturday.

The audience skewed heavily female - 72% - and 67% were over the age of 25, which is a "massive victory" for Universal, Boxoffice's Daniel Loria said.

The musical had the third biggest opening in the US this year - after Deadpool & Wolverine with $211m (£168m) in July and Inside Out 2 with $154m (£122m) in June.

Elsewhere, the soundtrack's hits voiced by Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, including Popular and Defying Gravity, have soared into most-played lists on streaming services.

The coming weeks will determine whether Wicked can take in the same worldwide totals of Broadway film adaptations such as Les Miserables ($442m / £352m) and Chicago ($306m / £244m).

Also in North America, another reinvented classic, Gladiator II, following up on Ridley Scott's 2000 epic, opened this weekend to $22m (£17.5m) on Friday. It then earned $18.8m on Saturday.

The sequel is projected to make $55.5m (£44.2m) over its opening weekend.

However, Mr Loria predicted that Moana 2, out on Wednesday in the US, could take the top spot of the three films in North America.

But with more people expected to see Wicked and Gladiator II over the holiday week, “we have potential of reaching the highest-grossing Thanksgiving weekend on record in North America by this time next week", he said.

Cinemas in the US celebrated the performance on Sunday, which comes after years of disruption from the pandemic. The National Association of Theatre Owners heralded "one of the most successful November weekends ever at the box office".

Irish actor Paul Mescal stars in Gladiator II

In the UK and Ireland, Wicked's opening weekend was the biggest at the box office for filmmaker Universal since No Time to Die, the most recent James Bond instalment it distributed in 2021.

Gladiator II, meanwhile, opened on 15 November in the UK and Ireland.

It made $11.4m (£9m) on its first weekend, then dropped to $6m (£4.8m) this weekend, a "fairly strong performance", Mr Loria said.

Together with Paddington In Peru, which earned £9.7m on its opening weekend on 8 November, it’s “one of the most exciting box offices times in the UK post-pandemic with those three titles", he said.