base talk Did Wicked underperform at the box office?

[Radical Pessimism]

I think it did pretty good. 

[Caltrask]

Well it flopped harder than Joker 2 in my countty

[superben]

It's doing splendid.

 

Non-English-speaking countries cannot care less about musicals. 

 

 

 

[John Slayne]

no, it overperformed

[MALAMENTE]

Yes

[Flanders]

It's a smash hit in the US and an ordinary hit elsewhere. It's done really well but could have done better abroad. It's a hit though no doubt about that 

[Broken]

It flopped outside the US. The 70/30 split is brutal 

[americanlife]

I was expecting more but those are still excellent numbers. In the end, you can put Part 1 and 2 together and it will gross over $1b.

[Miracle]

Did pretty well but 69% domestic is kinda wild. I guess the world doesn't care much about the Wicked brand 

[Feanor]

Only overseas. It smashed beyond all expectations domestically and with a $700M+ end result it did great all things considered.

[Renem]

1 hour ago, Caltrask said:

Well it flopped harder than Joker 2 in my countty

What country is that, China?

[prézli]

It did in my country.

[prézli]

1 hour ago, Caltrask said:

Well it flopped harder than Joker 2 in my countty

Same.

[prézli]

4 minutes ago, Renem said:

What country is that, China?

Hungary

[OrgVisual]

It's literally one of the biggest movies of the year.

 

By the same standards, should we say Dune II is a flop too?

[JBJT2786]

39 minutes ago, Broken said:

It flopped outside the US. The 70/30 split is brutal 

Considering the studio gets more back domestically I doubt they mind that...

[IsidoraMarí]

Every musical theater kid will see this movie in theaters again after christmas once the sing a long version releases in theaters. 

[Blue Monday]

So is everything just considered a "flop" now?  You guys are ridiculous lmao. No one who actually pays attention to box office stuff and knows their stuff was saying this was going to hit $1B. 

Edited yesterday at 01:52 PM by Blue Monday

[Maneater]

How is it doing in the UK?

[Broken]

5 hours ago, Stuart said:

I think that dubbing the songs was a big mistake. Many of us have heard Defying Gravity in the trailer or on social media so we wanted to hear Cynthia sing, not someone else whose vocal skills don't match Cynthia's. Same for Ariana, many of her international fans wanted to go see her and listen to her voice.

This. Whoever made the decision should be fired. 

 

Me and my friends wanted to hear Ari's voice. The ASIB, Greatest Showman, La La Land songs, etc. were not dubbed in Latin America.

[ariananext]

3 hours ago, RideOrDie said:

omg the songs were dubbed??? 

Yes, the release was a mess in Italy. All the trailers had the dialogues in italian with songs in english - which was the best things for its target audience. Wicked is absolutely unknown here and the movie was pretty much going to be carried by Ariana's fanbase. 

 

Then two days before it came out Universal randomly said via TikTok comments that the songs would be sung in italian too, which was not predicted as the trailers said something else. There were also no names going around for the singers who were going to dub Cynthia and Ariana so it was very confusing.

 

Then as the fanbase protested some cinemas started adding the O.V. version but in terrible time slots, while others randomly cancelled the O.V. version despite people bookings.

 

Now italians are used to watching dubbed movies (we have some of the best dubbers) but in this case 95% of the people were going to see it for Ariana so they had to choose between watching it all in english or all in italian. Most went to the O.V. showings, while the all-italian flopped hard, but I also know many didn't go at all because of this mess.

[Gaia]

3 hours ago, Jay07 said:

No matter the push, a musical will not do as well as something as a Marvel movie that had been setting up for a decade. Also, despite your perception, I don't know what the actual marketing spend was on this, by all accounts it was the typical 2x of production budget. It is absolutely a flex to be the most succesful movie musical of all time, which this movie will be eventually.

 

It's so frustrating that people will argue against common sense, probably because of their own anti-Ariana feelings. Comparing Wicked to Endgame? Really? The majority of people balk at the very mention of singing in their movies.

It's hilarious you're saying "arguing against common sense" yet you're arguing against...comparing it to movies with similar marketing budgets.

 

Let's breakdown some of the top broadway adapted musical movies so you can see how Wicked "outperforming" is not, in any capacity, unexpected.

 

 

Production Budget / Gross / Multiplier:

 

Wicked - $150M / $650M (Est.) /  4-4.5x

Les Miserables - $61M / $443M / 7.3x

Mamma Mia - $55M / $611M / 11.1x

Chicago - 45M / 307M / 6.8x

La La Land - $30M / $509M / 17x

Grease - $6M / $396 / 66x

 

 

So lets rearrange based on amount grossed compared to production budget:

 

1. Grease - 66x

2. La La Land - 17x

3. Mamma Mia - 11.1x

4. Les Miserables - 7.3x

5. Chicago - 6.8x

6. Wicked 4.5x (giving best scenario)

 

 

 

This isn't even accounting for the fact that Wicked has had essentially a bigger marketing campaign than the rest of them combined and is up there with Marvel movies.

 

 

Marketing Budgets / Final Gross:

 

Wicked - $150M / $650M

Barbie - $150M / 1,447M

Avengers: Infinity War - $150M / $2,052M

Avengers: End Game - $200M / $2,799M

Avatar: TWOW - $200M / $2,320

 

 

So again, why are we supposed to be impressed with its numbers or find it a smash when it's hard so much poured into making it a success? Is it a Flop? No. Obviously. But this "huge smash!" thing Ari stans have going on is just not true. It did well, but is not by any means some gigantic smash.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited yesterday at 02:39 PM by Gaia

[Jay07]

3 hours ago, Gaia said:

It's hilarious you're saying "arguing against common sense" yet you're arguing against...comparing it to movies with similar marketing budgets.

 

Let's breakdown some of the top broadway adapted musical movies so you can see how Wicked "outperforming" is not, in any capacity, unexpected.

 

 

Production Budget / Gross / Multiplier:

 

Wicked - $150M / $650M (Est.) /  4-4.5x

Les Miserables - $61M / $443M / 7.3x

Mamma Mia - $55M / $611M / 11.1x

Chicago - 45M / 307M / 6.8x

La La Land - $30M / $509M / 17x

Grease - $6M / $396 / 66x

 

 

So lets rearrange based on amount grossed compared to production budget:

 

1. Grease - 66x

2. La La Land - 17x

3. Mamma Mia - 11.1x

4. Les Miserables - 7.3x

5. Chicago - 6.8x

6. Wicked 4.5x (giving best scenario)

 

 

 

This isn't even accounting for the fact that Wicked has had essentially a bigger marketing campaign than the rest of them combined and is up there with Marvel movies.

 

 

Marketing Budgets / Final Gross:

 

Wicked - $150M / $650M

Barbie - $150M / 1,447M

Avengers: Infinity War - $150M / $2,052M

Avengers: End Game - $200M / $2,799M

Avatar: TWOW - $200M / $2,320

 

 

So again, why are we supposed to be impressed with its numbers or find it a smash when it's hard so much poured into making it a success? Is it a Flop? No. Obviously. But this "huge smash!" thing Ari stans have going on is just not true. It did well, but is not by any means some gigantic smash.

 

 

 

 

 

A musical that is not an established IP to anyone but hard-core Broadway fans is not comparable to action franchises that have an established history of 10+ years, I'm not quite sure what's not clicking. I see you are conveniently avoiding comparing it to stuff like Dune 2. Once again, this will become the biggest film of its genre of all time, which is indeed a massive success that will be in the history books but sure, if comparing a musical to the biggest comic book movies of all time makes you feel better, go right ahead. Joker 2 had songs and bombed to oblivion while being a sequel to a billion dollar movie because most people hate singing in their movies.

 

Just say you are trying to twist this because you hate Ariana and go, it would at least be more honest.

Edited 20 hours ago by Jay07

[Chris]

Well it performed better than Joker 2 that's for sure.

 

[Chris]

The essays in here.