‘Wicked’ will be UK’s biggest film of the year, predicts cinema boss
It is released today (November 22) in both the UK and US
by Damian Jones · NMEWicked is on course to be the UK’s biggest film of the year, according to a major cinema boss.
The film, which is released today (November 22) in both the UK and US, is expected to take the box office by storm.
After the global domination of ‘Barbenheimer’ in the summer of 2023, film fans are also looking forward to the phenomenon of ‘Glicked’ when Wicked goes up against Gladiator 2 in the US too.
Both movies are expected to make big box office takings in the coming days when they are simultaneously released much like Barbie and Oppenheimer last year.
According to Deadline, Jon M. Chu’s Wicked and Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2 are set to pull in huge takings on their openings with the former expected to clock up over $80million (£62.8million) and the latter $65million (£51million) domestically.
Now, Vue founder and CEO Tim Richards has said he believes Wicked could be the biggest film of the year.
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“Following the huge success of Paddington In Peru and Gladiator 2, and ahead of Moana 2, Mufasa and other amazing films in the lead up to Christmas, Vue has delivered record-breaking pre-sales for Wicked.
“The pre-sales are tracking in line with Barbie’s last year and it looks like Wicked could be the biggest film of 2024. Wicked, alongside Paddington and Gladiator, will help Vue fly well past one million admissions for the full week, and we are looking forward to seeing our customers in a sea of pink and green enjoying the big screen experience for an amazing movie with their family and friends.”
Reviewing the movie, which stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo and is an adaptation of the stage musical which tells the origin story of the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz, NME awarded it four stars and said the “hit musical makes a gravity-defying leap to the big screen”.
“Funny, colourful and full of empathy for outsiders, this film really is the Shiz,” it added.