Wicked: For Good's Box Office Results One Divisive 113-Year-Long Movie Trend Is Here For Good

Wicked: For Good's Box Office Results One Divisive 113-Year-Long Movie Trend Is Here For Good Elphaba looking over her shoulder in Wicked For Good trailer By  Zoe Miskelly Published 33 minutes ago Zoë Miskelly is an editor for Screen Rant's Superheroes team, and has covered Marvel, DC, and other superhero franchises in comic, movie, and show form for 8 years. Zoë's love of superheroes and all things Marvel & DC started out in childhood, and has blossomed into a career getting to talk about some of the biggest and best movies and shows of all time, having previously focused on comics while working at WhatCulture. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

Wicked: For Good's first box office reports confirm a divisive part of the world of movies and how series can be structured is here to stay for more than one reason. The news that Broadway musical Wicked - which breathed new life into the classic story of The Wizard Of Oz and its characters by adapting the book of the same name - would be a two-part film series came as a surprise to some, given the musical itself is one installment.

That said, the critical reception for both Wicked and Wicked: For Good has thus far been largely positive, though not without some notable criticisms. While Wicked: For Good is in the first stage of its box office run, what we've seen thus far also shows the lucrative potential of one movie approach that has sometimes divided audiences.

Wicked: For Good's Early Box Office Reports Already Show The Value Of Splitting Movies Into Two Parts

Elphaba looking off-screen in Wicked For Good trailer

Wicked sequel Wicked: For Good is only in the first days of its theatrical run, but the results already look decidedly promising on a financial level. According to Variety's Wicked: For Good box office report, the movie is projected to net itself a $226 million opening weekend worldwide, which is notably higher than the result the original Wicked obtained with its own $162.4 million opening weekend results.

This report not only suggests that Wicked: For Good is already in good standing to best Wicked's overall box office results, but also shows the benefits of the Wicked musical having been split into two separate parts. It's decidedly unlikely that a version of the live-action movie Wicked could have ever gained a $388.4 million opening weekend, but this will be the overall result for the duology combined, which immediately suggests dividing the story up has had financial benefits.

Similarly, unless Wicked: For Good's box office results fall sharply after this initial weekend, or the films' financial results otherwise end up experiencing major adjustments from this initial report, the overall results of the Wicked movie series look as though they will be over double the gross of the original Wicked. Taking this into account, it's easy to see why future film series will no doubt also end up taking this route with their stories - especially because Wicked is by no means the first film series to consider this approach.

Dividing Movies Into Parts Has A Long History Of Being Financially Lucrative

Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit

In recent history, it's hard to forget that Avengers: Endgame was originally intended to be Avengers: Infinity War Part 2, and releases like the Dune movies follow a not dissimilar avenue in terms of dividing the story based on what suits the adapted narrative, rather than trying to cram one of the lore-laden books into every installment of the film series.

Similar approaches not all that long ago can be seen with The Hobbit - which managed to be three separate parts despite coming from one book - The Lord Of The Rings, Breaking Dawn, Kill Bill, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, with the final two installments of Deathly Hallows making over $2 billion cumulatively.

That said, this is by no means a modern phenomenon, as one of the earliest recorded examples of this approach to the film format can be evidenced as far back as the 1920s, with the two-part Die Nibelungen fantasy film duology.

In many ways, this formatting follows on from some of the oldest traditions of cinema, wherein many older film serials were split into a wide array of parts, encouraging audiences to make cinema-going a regular occurrence in order to see the full story they'd grown attached to - which goes as far back as the 1910s, thanks to serials like the 1912 What Happened To Mary? and 1913 Fantômas.

Why Splitting Movies Like Wicked Into Two Does Make Sense

Elphaba and Glinda holding hands in Wicked For Good

Though the financial benefits of splitting stories that were previously one installment into two or more are seemingly exemplified by Wicked and Wicked: For Good's box office results, this is a decision that appears to be made for story-based reasons as much as it is for financial ones. Narratives that have a lot of events contained within them can sometimes arguably need this formatting, especially for stories that move from place to place often, or that otherwise need segments of slower pacing to work best.

This is especially true for movies that adapt other source material, be that a book, a comic run, or a pre-existing stage play - or a book and musical, as is the case for the Wicked movies - since adapting these sources authentically and without dissolving moments of nuance can require a longer overall movie runtime.

While the full extent of Wicked: For Good's box office results won't be truly clear until some weeks from now, the picture that's already been painted this early in the movie's run certainly suggests it's yet another example of why many releases split up their story into a two-part format - and no doubt not the last example we'll see of this approach being utilized in a way that has clear financial benefits.

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