Wednesday, May 20, 2026

The “Wicked” Spell Wearing Off A Bit After Losing to “Zootopia 2” in Second Weekend, Still Headed to $300 Mil This Week

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“Wicked For Good” lost some steam this holiday weekend.

The “Wicked” sequel originally came in like the cyclone that blew Dorothy’s house off its foundation.

But for a second weekend, “WFG” took a beating from “Zootopia 2,” sequel to the 2016 hit.

The latter grossed $96.8 million over its first five days and beat “WFG” soundly, denying the Ozzian tale a second week at number 1. The total counting the first two days comes to $156 million. It’s breathing down the neck of the old Wizard.

“WFG” had a regular three day weekend and produced just $62.8 million.

Nevertheless, “Wicked For Good” will hit $300 million in the US on Monday or Tuesday.

Nothing else on this long weekend did more than $7 million which itself was a magic trick performed by “Now You See Me Now You Don’t.”

Nothing coming this week looks like competition for either “WFG” or “Z2” except maybe the horror film, “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.”

The next big movie won’t come for two weeks, when “Avatar: Fire and Ash” opens wide. “Marty Supreme” also get a very limited release on December 18th. A trio of wide releases come on Christmas Day including “Marty,” “Anaconda,” and “Song Sung Blue.”

But this is not the holiday release month of the old days. Even “Avatar,” now on its third iteration, can’t be counted on to save the 2025 box office. The year is going out with a whimper, not a bang, which is too bad.

One bit of hindsight: a real release for “Frankenstein,” with real marketing, would have been a boon in theaters. Alas, Netflix kept it to themselves.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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