
2024 has been a great year for the arts, but for musical enthusiasts, 2024 meant the release of Wicked: Part One. A Wicked movie has been anticipated for almost two decades, but on February 11th, 2024, the first Wicked teaser was released. Since then, Wicked has gone on a marketing rampage that rivals that of Barbie in 2023; they’ve undergone a press tour filled with viral moments; they’ve broken box office records, and they’ve released a soundtrack that soared to the top of the charts. The movie also has been doing well during the awards season.
The play Wicked, premiered at the Gershwin Theatre, 222 West 51st Street New York City, on October 30th, 2003 starring Idina Menzel as Elphaba and Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda/Galinda. Although not released with critical acclaim, the awards came flooding in, with Wicked nominated for 8 awards at the 2004 Tonys and winning 3. The musical is also one of the most commercially successful in history, earning almost $1.7 billion over 8,000 shows, with over 14.5 million attendees in the Broadway production alone. In addition to the two U.S. tours (The second one continually running since 2009), Wicked also has a very successful show at the West End in London.
The debate around creating a Wicked movie has been ongoing since 2012 without much success. However, after the pandemic, Universal hired Jon M. Chu (In the Heights, Crazy Rich Asians) as director. Filming finally commenced in December 2022 with Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande-Butera as Galinda; later known as Glinda. On February 11th, 2024 the first preview for Wicked was released during the Super Bowl 58, watched by over 120 million people. Since then, the world has been in a ‘Wickedmania.’ With a budget of $150 million dollars for marketing, Wicked could afford to collaborate with over 400 brands to turn the world pink and green. Wicked collaborated with companies like Starbucks to create a pink and green drink and a limited line of Wicked themed tumblers. They also collaborated with Stanleys, Target, H&M, Crocs, and many more.
Just to make sure the message was clear, Grande and Erivo have been very active doing interviews for podcasts and magazines on their press tour. It is impossible to escape them on social media, whether you like it or not. One particular moment during an OUT magazine interview with Erivo and Grande created a particularly viral moment about ‘holding space.’ The interviewer stated that some of the lyrics in ‘Defying Gravity’ were going viral. The two cast members felt very touched, and Grande started holding Erivo’s index finger, and proceeded to shed tears.
In the weeks leading up to the movie, the cast embarked on an international tour to premiere the movie. Chu envisioned the press tour where every new city was a different location in Oz. In Sydney, Australia the theme was Munchkinland. In LA, it was Shiz University, and so on in Mexico City, and New York City. Their final stop was London, which they turned into the famous Emerald City. On November 22nd, the movie was released to audiences worldwide to very positive acclaim. As of December 26, the movie is the 3rd biggest movie of 2024 with over $450 million made domestically and the largest film based on a musical ever domestically. The soundtrack to the movie debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200 making it the highest debut for a stage to film musical.
With everything that has happened to it so far, it is safe to assume that Wicked has solidified itself as one of the biggest movies of the year. They are expected to win big at the awards season this year having already won big at the National Board of Review and the Astra’s, winning best film in both. Wicked also won the Cinematic and Box Office achievement award at the Golden Globes. It was also nominated at the Critics Choice Awards 11 times. The nominations for the Oscars, however, have been delayed due to the current raging fires in Los Angeles. It is bound to become a movie that will go down in history, and it’s only the first part! Wicked: For Good will be released on November 21, and I can’t wait to see what it will bring.