Here’s something that hasn’t been done with a musical before: Universal will release its feature take on the smash Broadway musical Wicked in two parts on December 25, 2024 and December 25, 2025. It’s a bold swing for a musical, which of late have been risky onscreen. However, this one is based on a legacy crowd-pleaser.
Jon M. Chu is directing the untold story of the Witches of Oz, starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. The pic is based on the bestselling novel by Gregory Maguire and adapted for the screen by the stage production’s book writer Winne Holzman and Oscar-winning composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz.
Typically those movies getting broken into two parts have been blockbuster-level YA films based on books, i.e. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay. While those were huge successes, the plan faltered with Lionsgate’s third Divergent movie, Allegiant, which tanked at the box office with $66M domestic and $179M global. The second half of that Shailene Woodley movie never was made, given how that pic fell apart, but the situation there was that the third Veronica Roth Divergent novel divided fans greatly.
Knock on wood, but working to Wicked’s advantage is that it’s a near $3 billion-grossing Broadway musical seen by more than 30 million people worldwide.
How is that going to work if Universal has another Cats/Dear Even Hanson bomb with PART 1????
CATS was a legacy crowd-pleaser.
DEAR EVAN HANSEN had a rabid following.
I am guessing if the first one doesn’t perform, the second one goes to Peacock.
What a cash grab. How is Cynthia supposed to play someone in high school? So many questionable choices being made for this. Universal taking musicals and throwing them in the toilet.
I predict a lot of discussions wondering if that’s the reason the films under-performed. I can save everybody a lot of time and say “yes“ now. 🙄
From looking at the comments almost all are against this decision, and I tend to agree. Both West side Story movies were over 2.5 hours, could you imagine splitting it? And waiting over a year? Yes, people generally have a limited attention span today but this sounds like an awful idea!! Come on Universal!!