On November 22, 2024, the movie Wicked featuring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo arrived in theaters, allowing the public to finally see this much-anticipated release. The director said it was made to speak to a new voice of a new generation.
The director of Wicked is Jon M. Chu, who has directed many films like In The Heights, Now You See Me 2, Crazy Rich Asians, along with Wicked.
The musical score is composed by John Powell and Stephen Schwartz. It was adapted from the Broadway version of Wicked.
The movie Wicked was nominated for the Golden Globes, which took place on January 5, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California. It has been a major part of the film industry’s awards season. Wicked received four Golden Globe nominations. 1) Best Picture, Musical or Comedy, 2) Best Supporting Actress for Ariana Grande, 3) Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for Cynthia Erivo, and 4) Cinematic and Box Office Achievement. When the Golden Globes were held, Wicked won Cinematic and Box Office Achievement. One person in particular was very happy, if it isn’t the girl herself Cynthia Ervio. “I’m so proud that we get to do this together. I’m so proud of the journey that we’ve walked to get to this point and how much hard work has gone into it, and how much care, not just on screen, but offscreen,” Cynthia said.
They were also nominated for numerous Academy Awards. Wicked received 10 Academy Awards nominations for Best Picture, Best Sound, Best Original Score, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Visual Effects, Best Production Design, Best Filming Editing, and Best Costume Design. The Academy Awards will be taking place on March 2, 2025, so winners will be unknown until then.
The Academy Awards, or as most know it, the Oscars, are awards mostly to give credit and recognize achievement for the artistic and technical aspects of the film industry. The Oscars were named when Margaret Herrick, an Academy librarian in the 1930s and 40s, saw the statue for the Academy Award for the first time and she thought it looked just like her Uncle Oscar. Herrick was never able to back this up with evidence, but this is one popular theory that has held up over time.
Wicked‘s estimated budget, or cost to produce, is estimated to be between $145-150 million. According to Box Office Mojo, Wicked has grossed over $722 million worldwide as of the publication of this article.
Many people loved Wicked, especially Aanya S, who said, “Okay after watching the movie I felt pretty amazing because it was cool to see the movie. I had never watched The Wizard of Oz and I’ve heard so much good stuff about it but I never thought I would actually be interested in this kind of stuff. It was really amazing. I had a great time and the actors and actresses added humor in the movie. They made it funny. I don’t know it felt…just really special, I guess, and nice, so it was a really good movie. The movie was really engaging.”
The Wicked cast is Glinda (Ariana Grande), Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), Prince Fiyero, Glinda’s love of her life, (Jonathan Bailey), Nessarose Thropp, Elphaba’s younger sister, (Marissa Bode), The Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum), and Madame Morrible, the headmistress of Shiz (Michelle Yeoh).
Wicked, the movie, is based off of the Broadway show Wicked. Wicked on Broadway has grossed $1,705,372,480 in box office sales as of this publication, according to Broadway World. The Hollywood Reporter notes that over the 2024 winter holiday week, Wicked on Broadway earned the highest weekly gross in history with over $5 million in sales during just one week. The first performance on Broadway was on June 10, 2003. Glinda was most notably played by Kristin Chenoweth and Elphaba by Idina Menzel, though other Broadway actresses have taken on the roles over the years.
