The train to Oz keeps rolling, with audiences as the popular Broadway musical adaptation continues to reign on home video.
Wicked is a monster hit. The film is a recent Golden Globe winner and has also been announced to have SAG Award nominations. Our own Chris Bumbray became enchanted by it despite not being a Broadway musical fan and said in his review, “While I’ll admit that there were a handful of moments where I felt I was missing some kind of in-joke for fans of the play, overall, I had a pretty good time with Jon M. Chu’s Wicked – Part I,” Bumbray wrote. “Certainly, it’s one of the better modern versions of The Wizard of Oz, far more entertaining than Sam Raimi’s largely forgotten Oz: The Great and Powerful. Chu seems to have a knack for movie musicals, and with Universal clearly pumping a pretty penny into it, it feels like the kind of big, broad fantasy epic that should be able to crossover beyond its core audience of Broadway enthusiasts.”
The musical’s box office is nearing a whopping $700 million globally, but The Hollywood Reporter is also revealing that the film has set a record in sales for Premium video-on-demand as it pulls over $70 million in just its first week. This is proving to be an exception in the recent trend of movies that hit home video viewings in a mere month-or-so after it premieres in theaters. Wicked dominated the box office during the holiday season last year and while it has become available to watch in the comfort of people’s homes, its transition isn’t showing signs of significant drops at the box office.
Universal’s Filmed Entertainment Group closed a landmark deal back in 2020 with top exhibitors that allowed the studio’s newly released films to have a smaller window in its theater run so that home viewers can pay premium prices to watch first-run movies on streaming devices a lot sooner than the normal release window. It’s comparable to how hotels usually offer services to watch movies “still in theaters” at a pay-per-view price. Coupled with Warner Bros launching an experimental same-day viewing plan during the pandemic, other studios followed suit as theaters opened back up. Wicked was made available on VOD on December 31, 2024. Consumers can currently purchase Wicked for Premium EST (digital ownership) at $30 and $20 for PVOD (digital rental), which includes the original film and the sing-along versions.
