Movie Monday: ‘Wicked: For Good’ Defies Box Office Gravity

Elphaba is green, and Wicked: For Good is covered in the color, too—on account of all the money audiences dumped on the movie this weekend.

The second half of the Broadway adaptation snatched $150 million from American audiences in its opening weekend. (That’s nearly $38 million more than the first movie earned in the same timeframe.) Internationally, For Good took in $76 million, bringing its worldwide open to $226 million. Who can say if that performance changed the box office for the better, but it certainly changed Wicked for good—at least, for this week.

Wicked: For Good pulled back the curtain on the magicians in Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, who—despite last weekend’s numbers being a franchise best—found themselves strapped for cash this weekend. Their earnings dropped more than 50% from last Movie Monday (a theme for every movie not named Wicked). Now You Don’t took second place with $9.1 million. That brings its domestic total to $36.8 million and its worldwide cume to $146.2 million.

Third place goes to Predator: Badlands (entering its third weekend since release). It hunted down a $6.3 million bounty. Its U.S. earnings currently rest at $76.3 million. With a slightly better international showing at $83.3 million, its worldwide cume ends up at $159.6 million.

The Running Man found itself winded in fourth place. Its fourth-place ribbon goes for $5.8 million. In the United States, it’s taken in $27 million. Put that trophy on the trophy shelf, and the whole thing is worth about $48.3 million.

Brendan Fraser’s dramedy Rental Family debuted in fifth place with $3.3 million. And as for other noteworthy newcomers, Sisu: Road to Revenge shot its way into sixth. The bounty on its head? $2.6 million.

Kennedy Unthank

Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He’s also an avid cook. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”

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