Wicked! Cinema sequel smashes box office, fuels summer surge

Wicked: For Good has delivered the second-largest opening of 2025, earning $13.2 million in Australia across its Wednesday–Sunday debut and bringing in 546,000 admissions.

The sequel surpassed the original film’s opening by more than 30% and now holds the biggest-ever opening for a musical adaptation in Australia. Globally, it earned more than US$226 million across opening weekend. The film drew a heavily youth-skewed audience, with 61% of viewers aged 14 to 39 and 77% female.

“Given the incredible success of the original film last year, we knew audiences would come back for this sequel and they have, in droves,” said Guy Burbidge, managing director of Val Morgan Cinema. “It’s a strong start to another huge summer of cinema.”

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Val Morgan Cinema said Telstra, Suncorp, Paramount, Audible, Commonwealth Bank and Coles are among the major on-screen partners.

The film opens a busy school-holiday slate, with Zootopia 2 and Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 set to roll out in the coming weeks. Avatar: Fire and Ash arrives on 18 December, followed by Boxing Day releases Anaconda, The Housemaid and The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants.

The first quarter of 2026 will see titles including Wuthering Heights, Scream 7 and Project Mail Mary.