Universal couldn’t be happier about Wicked: For Good‘s Monday at the North American box office, which minted $14.7M at 4,115 theaters. Among all Mondays in November, that’s the second-best, just under Wicked‘s $15.77M last year at the same point in time and ahead of Frozen 2‘s $12.77M on Nov. 25, 2019.
As we told you yesterday, the Jon M. Chu directed sequel was already set to be the best non-holiday Monday year-to-date ahead of Superman‘s $12.9M on July 14. Among all Mondays this year, Wicked: For Good is third behind the Memorial Day takes of Disney’s Lilo & Stitch ($36.5M) and Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning ($15M). The four-day running cume on Wicked: For Good stands at $161.7M, +26% ahead of Wicked at the same point in time which ended its domestic run at $474.9M.
With Disney’s Zootopia 2 set to conquer the Thanksgiving five-day period of Wednesday through Sunday with $125M, Uni his hoping that Wicked: For Good posts a hold on par with last year’s Wicked, i.e. a 5-day of $118.2M and 3-day of $81.1M (-28% from its $112.5M opening). With two big films once again ala last Thanksgiving’s Moana 2 and Wicked ruling the box office, the hope is that we see a holiday frame not far from last year’s record of $424.9M, meaning somewhere around $300M.
While Zootopia 2 is opening under the 5-day of the heavy female skewing Moana 2 ($225.4M with 71% female), the sequel does appeal to a broader audience, the first 2016 movie pulling in 53% women to 47% men.
In second place on Monday was Lionsgate’s Now You See: Now You Don’t with an estimated $1.2M at 3,403 theaters and a $37.9M 11-day running cum, which is -10% behind the previous installment, Now You See Me 2 at the same point in time; that movie being a summer release and finaling at $65M in U.S./Canada. The top 20 movies yesterday pulled in $20M compared to $26.7M a year ago, -25%. The difference? Essentially, the lack of a strong male-skewing title ala last year’s Paramount’s Gladiator II which made $5.5M on its first Monday.
