Everyone wanted to see how Wicked ended, even if many of them already knew. Despite some chatter about trying to squeeze another chapter out of this story, this weekend did debut the final act originally delivered on the stage, and it had the 30th-biggest opening of all time. Set to be the first guaranteed hit of the winter season For Good, it is also the beginning of a trifecta of films including Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire and Ash that will help put 2025 on a path to have the biggest box office year since the pandemic, defying all the chicken littles out there trying to diminish the future of the theatrical experience.
KING of the Crop: Wicked: For Good Soars to $150 Million Opening
If you followed the tracking on the numbers for Wicked: For Good this week, it appeared as if each trade and pundit was trying to out-headline the other: $150 million. $180 million. A record-breaking $200 million! Those were the clicks. Then, of course, you read the fine print and realized those were worldwide figures. Still, nothing to sneeze at, as Part One opened to $164 million globally, with $112.5 million of that on the domestic side. Wicked: Part One is one of the few all-time grossers to make more domestically than on the international side. Only seven of the top 50 domestic grossers of all time have managed this feat: Black Panther, The Dark Knight, Rogue One, Wicked: Part One, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Wonder Woman and The Hunger Games. But now we are burying the lede.
The bottom line this weekend is that Wicked: For Good began its domestic run with nearly twice its international haul. A solid $150 million domestic gross (compared with $76 million internationally) is the second-highest of the year behind only A Minecraft Movie’s $162.8 million, and it’s the fourth-best international launch of the year behind Jurassic World: Rebirth ($322.6 million), Minecraft ($313.7 million), and Lilo & Stitch ($307.2 million), just ahead of Superman ($220 million). For Good also ranks ahead of three of the Twilight films, which opened on the third week of November between $138-143 million. Wicked: For Good now joins those films, along with Harry Potter and Hunger Games movies, in the ranks of the $100 million-plus openers on pre-Thanksgiving weekend. Funny enough, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 was the only film of that bunch to reach $300 million domestic.
In addition, this marks the biggest debut ever for a Broadway adaptation, a record that was previously held by — any guesses? — the first Wicked film.
Given the success of Wicked’s first act, it seems likely that For Good will become the second. However, reviews are not nearly as strong (70% on the Tomatometer compared to the first film’s Certified Fresh 88%). Awards pundits are already adjusting their expectations, and even fans of the stage musical (when I’ve asked) reluctantly agree that Act Two was never as good as Act One to begin with. Regardless, it is going to have a great stay over the holiday, racking up dollars along with Zootopia 2. From there we’ll see if $300 million is the only milestone it reaches, but for the same price tag for both movies ($150 million each), Universal is going to see at least $1.25 billion in return for the effort.
Tales of the top 10: Predator: Badlands Holds on to Third, Rental Family Debuts at No. 5
Now You See Me: Now You Don’t lost more than half its audience in its second weekend, dropping 57% to $9.1 million. The first sequel was at $41 million after 10 days, while this one is at $36.8 million. A $60-65 million domestic finish is not unreasonable, but like its predecessors, it’s the international numbers that turned these into big solid hits for Lionsgate. Now You Don’t is now at $109 million outside the U.S. and has a way to go to reach the $351 million and $334 million of the first two films. It definitely needs to reach at least $200 million to have a chance of turning a theatrical profit, and that is no guarantee just yet.
Predator: Badlands continues to dip. This week it fell 51% down to $6.2 million. That brings its 17-day total to $76.2 million, similar to a title no film wants to be associated with on the financial side: The Marvels, which had $76.7 million at this point after a $6.3 million third weekend. Badlands is still likely to outperform that, but it is looking increasingly likely that it will be the third November release in the last three years to reach $75 million by this point and not hit $100 million. The Marvels in 2023 and last year’s Red One are the only November releases in that category. Red One made $12.7 million over Thanksgiving weekend in its third Fri-Sun and ultimately tapped out at $97 million domestic to be one of 2024’s biggest bombs. Badlands’ numbers won’t be nearly as bad, and it will still be the highest-grossing film of the franchise, but at just $159 million globally right now, it is feeling like a bit of a disappointing run.
For all the money that Tom Cruise and Glen Powell helped make Paramount on Top Gun: Maverick, it’s going the other way this year with the final Mission: Impossible film and now the re-adaptation of Stephen King’s The Running Man. Edgar Wright’s film fell 65% to $5.8 million in its second weekend for a 10-day total of $27 million. That is a lot closer to Mortal Kombat: Annihilation than anyone wants to be, with its $27.7 million 10-day total and $6.7 million second weekend. Running Man will pass that film’s $35 million take, but a landing in the $40 million realm is well below what anyone hoped for this new version. International numbers are not helping either (only an additional $21 million to date) and this is quickly turning out to be one of the year’s biggest misfires.
Hikari, who has directed episodes of Tokyo Vice for HBO MAX and Beef for Netflix, released their English-language feature debut with Rental Family, starring Brendan Fraser. The film has earned a strong reception from critics since its festival debuts at Toronto and elsewhere. It’s only Searchlight Pictures’ second release of 2025 after The Roses was dumped at the end of August and made $15.2 million (still their fourth-highest grosser since the pandemic). Rental Family began with $3.3 million in 1,925 theaters for Searchlight’s fifth-best start since the pandemic behind A Complete Unknown ($11.6 million), The Menu ($9.0 million), The Roses ($6.2 million), and Antlers ($4.2 million), and ahead of See How They Run ($3.0 million), The Night House ($2.8 million), Next Goal Wins ($2.5 million), and Nightmare Alley ($2.4 million)
If you attended festivals back in 2022, genre fans were abuzz over Jalmari Helander’s Sisu and its violent premise of an ex-soldier fighting Nazis over gold. Lionsgate released the film at the end of April 2023, when it opened to $3.3 million and finished with $7.2 million. Not bad, considering it was half a foreign language film and had no major names in it. Well, if you attended Fantastic Fest this year (or read about it), you would know that people went wild again over the sequel Sisu: Road to Revenge, which even earned comparisons to Mad Max: Fury Road. As they have for Paddington and the 28 Years series this year, Sony took over distribution for the sequel, and it opened this weekend to $2.6 million. The first film is Certified Fresh at 94% on the Tomatometer. Currently, the sequel is Fresh at 96%.
The adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s Regretting You continues to get into the plus column for Paramount. Despite being the fourth-worst reviewed film of the year to open in over 3,000 theaters (28%) ahead of only Flight Risk (27%), Smurfs (21%), and Love Hurts (19%), it made another $1.5 million this weekend to bring its 31-day total to $47.2 million. Approaching $90 million globally, the $30 million production is in the black for Paramount and the most profitable film on their 2025 theatrical slate.
The top film of October, Black Phone 2, continues to add to its lead over Tron: Ares (the second-highest grossing film of the month and, perhaps, the second biggest bomb of 2025). Scott Derrickson’s supernatural thriller made $1 million, bringing its total to $76.3 million. The sequel to the adaptation of Joe Hill’s (aka Stephen King’s son) short story has grossed more than any of the adaptations of his father’s books this year – The Monkey ($39.7 million), The Life of Chuck ($6.7 million), The Long Walk ($35.1 million), and The Running Man ($28+ million and counting).
A solid congratulations is in order to Sony Classics for their wide release of Nuremberg. After making another $1.2 million in its third weekend, it is now their highest domestic grosser ($11 million) since Call Me By Your Name and its Oscar run back in 2017. That film finished with over $18 million. Nuremberg will not reach that and is unlikely to have much of an Oscar run, but congrats on getting the film out there for audiences across the country. Rounding out the top 10, Sarah’s Oil holds on for another week with $772,000. The Amazon/MGM release has grossed $10.4 million in 17 days.
Just outside of the top 10, Osgood Perkins’ Keeper fell 76% from its debut last week down to $600,000. November and December is generally not the horror season, and the Neon release has made just $3.9 million. Doing better for them is Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, which made another $635,000 in only 151 theaters. The awards player has made $1.48 million to date.
On the Vine: Zootopia 2 Becomes a Wicked Challenger
We are just a few days away from Thanksgiving, and one of the biggest titles of the season (and likely the year) is set to open. Zootopia 2, the sequel to Disney’s billion-dollar original hit from 2016, should be packed with families as it seeks to be part of a $3 billion global holiday trifecta that also includes Wicked and Avatar. Netflix is also briefly releasing Rian Johnson’s third Knives Out film, Wake Up Dead Man, in theaters before it appears on their platform on Dec. 12. It is already Certified Fresh at 95% on the Tomatometer. The afterlife rom-com Eternity, with Miles Teller and Elizabeth Olsen, is at 83% and hopes to siphon off some patrons. Then, in limited release, look for one of the year’s biggest award contenders in Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet. Jessie Buckley could be this year’s Best Actress winner, and the film is Certified Fresh at 88%. Finally, Neon is also releasing The Secret Agent with Wagner Moura. It boasts a perfect Certified Fresh 100% on the Tomatometer with 73 reviews at the moment.
Full List of Box Office Results: November 21-23, 2025
- Wicked: For Good – $150.0 million ($150.0 million total)
- Now You See Me: Now You Don’t – $9.1 million ($36.8 million total)
- Predator: Badlands – $6.2 million ($76.2 million total)
- The Running Man – $5.8 million ($27.0 million total)
- Rental Family – $3.3 million ($3.3 million total)
- Sisu: Road to Revenge – $2.6 million ($2.6 million total)
- Regretting You – $1.5 million ($47.2 million total)
- Nuremberg – $1.2 million ($11.0 million total)
- Black Phone 2 – $1 million ($76.3 million total)
- Sarah’s Oil – $772,000 ($10.4 million total)
Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast.
Thumbnail image by Giles Keyte/©Universal Pictures
